You math is slightly off, it's 24 days of legally mandated holidays, but those assume a 6-day workweek (§ 3 BUrlG, see 1). Legally mandated holidays on a 5 days

You math is slightly off, it's 24 days of legally mandated holidays, but those assume a 6-day workweek (§ 3 BUrlG, see 1). Legally mandated holidays on a 5 days workweek is 20 days only. The actual number of workdays varies slightly with the location you're in as well. Some states have more federal holidays. Generally speaking the dominantly catholic part have more, the city of Augsburg has the most (they have the "Hohes Freiheitsfest", a holiday that is restricted to the city of Augsburg) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburger_Hohes_Friedensfest https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburger_Hohes_Friedensfest http://www.schulferien.org/Arbeitstage/arbeitstage-2016.html http://www.schulferien.org/Arbeitstage/arbeitstage-2016.html Your general point still stands: 30k is a low contracting rate and in general untenable for a freelancer. You should be earning at least twice as much. However, for open source work this is a major step up - you can make a living off it instead of self-funding your work. (1) https://dejure.org/gesetze/BUrlG/3.html https://dejure.org/gesetze/BUrlG/3.html