Ever wondered what the highest paying jobs are in Germany? Well look no further, as a new data analysis shines a light on the professions where you can earn the most money, as well as those which generally have lower salaries.Â
Job platform Stepstone analysed over a million salaries for full-time jobs across Germany to come up with a list of the median incomes people can expect. The median, also known as the central value, is the amount exactly in the middle of the data, meaning there are the same number of higher and lower salaries above and below.
As well as showing the sectors where people earn the most, the report also looks at whether personnel responsibility pays off and how satisfied Germans are with their salary.
How much do workers earn in Germany?
Full-time employees earn a median gross salary (before tax) of around €45,800 per year, according to the Stepstone Gehaltsreport (Salary Report) 2025.
In contrast to the average salary, the median value is less influenced by particularly high outlier salaries. Accordingly, the average gross salary is significantly higher for employees in Germany - landing at €52,300 per year.
The Stepstone analysis shows further differences between men and women, with the gender pay gap coming in at 12.40 percent.
Women earned a median gross salary of €42,100 per year, while men have a gross median salary of €48,000. Adjusted for influencing factors such as age, industry or professional group, the salary difference was still 5.7 percent.
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Stepstone's report outlines that Germans' satisfaction with their salary has actually risen slightly compared to the previous year, despite the economic woes of the country in general.
A third (33.6 percent) of those surveyed in 2024 stated that they were satisfied with their salary, while 4.2 percent were very satisfied. In 2023, 31.7 percent said they were satisfied.
At the same time, however, the majority of employees in Germany are still dissatisfied (46.5 percent) or very dissatisfied (15.7 percent) with their salary.
Which jobs and sectors offer the best pay?
According to job platform Stepstone's Salary Report, being a doctor is the highest paying job in Germany. Doctors have a median income of €98,750 gross (before tax) per year.
In second place after doctors is employees of banks and insurance companies, who reportedly have a median gross income of €59,500. That group is followed by engineers (with a median income of €58,500) and management consultants (€58,250).
Grouped by sector, employees in banking have the highest salaries with a median salary of €65,500. The median salary in the aerospace and pharmaceutical industries is also more than €60,000. The insurance sector offers just under €60,000 as the median gross salary.
The lowest salary levels are found in the hotel industry, where the median gross salary for a full-time position is €37,250. The catering industry is also a lower-paying sector, with employees also earning a median salary of €37,250 per year.
The median is also below €40,000 in agriculture and horticulture. For skilled trades, the median gross salary is just above that level, at €40,750.
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Meanwhile, full-time employees with a university degree earn a median gross income of €60,500, according to the analysis. That is around 40 percent more than employees without a degree, where the median salary is €43,100.
Highlighting the differences in pay of managers, those who lead a team earn a gross median salary of €53,250. Without staff responsibility, the median pay is €43,300 per year.
Where you live influences what you earn
Another factor that has a big impact on how much you earn is where you live and work in Germany - and the leading state is Hamburg. Here you earn a median salary of €52,000 gross per year - a salary that puts employees €12,500 above the median in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which is at the bottom of the table, according to Stepstone's analysis.
Hamburg is followed by Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Bavaria with gross median salaries of at least €50,000 each.
In the western German states the median salaries are between €43,750 and €52,000.
In general, salaries in the eastern German states are significantly lower than those in the west. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt have median salaries of between €39,500 and €41,000 gross per year.
READ ALSO:Â How your wages in Germany could depend heavily on where you live
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