Public service salary groups and levels - Germany

Hi~ guys~ i have a question about the PH.d salary. My boss told me that my salary is based on 13 TV-L/2 and I am a science major.

I am not sure how much is that salary? how many hours do I have to work? I check a little and it seems that I have to work 39.5 hours
per week, is it true?

Thank you very much

13 TV-L/2 means "Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst der Länder, Entgeltgruppe E13, Stufe 2". In other words salary group 13, level 2 in the public service salary table. The table is split between east and west Germany and teaching and non-teaching staff, so it depends on where you will work and what you will do. The relevant table for 2009 for teaching staff in western Germany indicates your gross salary will be €3305.35/month. The table for non-teaching staff indicates a salary of €3362.95/month. Your actual hours can depend on individual contract. Other tables, including those for last year (the current one began March 1) can be found here

And if you want to work out what your take-home pay will be then the Öffentlicher-Dienst.info site has calculators, amongst much other info on the tarifs for the German civil service.

Incidentally, the /2 may not (in fact, probably does not) mean Stufe 2, but a half-time post (i.e. TV-L E13 divided by 2) which will of course only be paid half the full salary. It is usual for "Doktoranden" in Germany to be paid as a part-time (usually between 50 and 75%, i.e. 20-30 hrs/wk) post, and research projects and PhDs are funded by e.g. BMBF and DFG on that basis. Whether you will only be expected to work part-time or actually full-time is between you and the Prof and/or the other colleagues (often you may be expected to spend the rest of the time on your actual PhD rather than doing the project donkey work).

See also this earlier thread on the subject - from post 18 then pretty much this exact topic was discussed.

13 TV-L/2

The /2 of the pay scale indicates that you will be paid half of a 13 TV-L postdoc salary (so your pay before tax is half of what Yorkshire Lad6 has found for you!!!). This is normal for a PhD salary in Germany.

It is likely that your contract will state that you are contracted to work for 19.5 hour a week but do be assured that your Group Leader will be expecting you to be working for at least the whole 39 hours.

Edit: beaten to it by the honourable lady / gentleman from Rostock.

Thank you very much every one~~~ I will be in Bremen in August and I am looking forward to come ~~

Just don't forget to make sure that the university you want to be admitted to accepts your qualifications as being fully equivalent to a German Diplom. Otherwise they might make you do more courses, and you won't get paid as much until you get your formal university admittance.

Getting a PhD position as a member of scientific staff and getting admittance to the university are quite often two different things.