Salary levels for various jobs in Germany

And to avoid any confusion that there are on other threads, the 40% deductions talked about here include health insurance, pension and social security. And I'd say with those salaries, you're probably looking at losing about 45% if you're on public health care. Maybe 40% if you have a private policy, but I'm not sure with the new rules whether you'll be eligible. Your wife definitely won't be. Starshollow would be able to help you out with that.

It's near Birkenfeld, apparently.

Dunno if those are good salaries for your positions (maybe you are both contractors) but they are in absolute terms. Baumholder is not an expensive area per se. You would probably be in Tax Category III, and your wife in V, since there is a significant difference in your salaries.

In those tax categories, your wife can expect a bit over 18,000 euros after withholding and assuming public insurance, give or take a few euros. With private health insurance, you might take home over 40,000 euros depending on your age. This will be different if you are the only wage earner. I assumed both of you would be working at the salaries you mentioned above.

Hi,

I am about to negotiate my pay raise, and would like to get some figures;
Would you know approximately what is the salary average for a Marketing position (no technical background) within IT industry- experience 10 years and MBA.
Thanks

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Does anyone know what an experienced/licensed dental hygienist should earn in the Landstuhl area?

Hello Every body,

This is S from India I have been given an assignment in german subsidiary of an indian company.

Salary is 16000 Euro Grotto+ 750 Euro Per month allowance+Company accommodation+Company car.

Do you feel this is good enough for myself & my wife.

I am Certified Accounts Professional (CA) with 5+ years of experience.

My location will be some where around Heilbronn.

Looking forward to some answers.

Eager Beaver.
S

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siddhantji: if you read through this thread and other similar threads here on Toytown you will find the rightfull standard answer: nobody can say because nobody knows how much is good or good enough for you. We are missing a yardstick for correlation here so any answer you can receive is more or less biased by the subjective standpoint of the person answering.

Of course what you want to know is if this is a fair salary compared to similar jobs on the market here in Germany as nobody wants to find out that he is underpaid when coming to a foreign country and talking to people in similar positions. However, even here we can not answer your inquiry since you tell us virtually nothing about your job: what will you do, how much people will you be in charge of, what budget will you be in charge of etc. and also the sector of industry you will be working in. All this informaiton would be required in order to compare your job-offer with others on the market.

If your monthly salary is 16.000.- EUR gross (hope I read that right) you would be earning far in excess of the majority of the population here. With this salary plus allowance and company car you can rent (and after a short time of being in Germany buy on a nice mortgage) a house for a big family, life a great life with lots of traveling and shopping and still safe good money for investment/pensions every month if your spending habbits are "normal". If you are a compulsory gambler, drug addict or want to drive a new Ferrari every 3 month, the budget could be a bit small, though

give us more meat on the bones to chew on and we can give you a better answer...

Cheerio

P.S.: look down below to the disclosaure and you know whom to contact when you need to take care about health insurance, third party liability insurance, content insurance for house, pension planning, investing or mortgage for buying a house

It would be interesting to have him clarify... I understand the above as 25,000 euros total per annum plus housing costs + car paid by the company.

If that is the case, then it could get a bit tight for a small family after taxes... you're right, need clarification on that issue!

I would have thought the term Grotto applied to a salary much worse that 16 THOUSAND Euros per month. Thats probably more that Frau Merkel gets...

If its annual figure that is certainly a grotty salary...

FYI: the highest-paid German official is the head of the Bundesbank, not the Chancellor. Give credit to the Bund for realizing the augmented value of economists vis a vis politicians!

Quite inventive, when you think about it, especially if it's a low salary: gross + brutto = grotto.

I find this discussion very interesting. I'm an executive recruiter with an assignment for an American financial services company. They have asked us to find an experienced financial writer in Germany with a salary range of 80-100K USD (approx. 60-70 Euro). This position will be based in Munich. Is this a good range for this type of position?

Thanks,

Gloria Kellerhals
gloria@wgpeople.com

gloria: once again - are we talking gross or net salary here? If it is gross salary, the employer will still have to face about 130 % of that amount counting his share of health insurance, pension and unemployment insurance etc... If it is on a contract base for a freelancer you have to bear in mind that health insurance will come at a price in Germany

Now, if you live as a single person with 60-70 gross salary in Munich, you would have a net salary of say about 42 k or 3.5 k per month. A single person may want to rent a place with say 60-80 sqm (pls do the conversion for inch, feet, whatever, this is how it is measured here) which in Munich will cost him around 800-1.000.- Eur rent per month (average 12.- EUr per sqm). Living expenses would be (with vary ordinary livestyle) 400-600 EUR per month. That leaves him with 2.000.- Eur for car, fun and party (and, since I am a financial advisor: pension planning and saving plans etc), not too bad in the point of view of many.

Now if the person is married with children (love and marriage, love and marriage...) of course costs are higher and the remainder of the salary is getting smaller.

Therefore, without actually knowing too much about the salary range of "financial writers" I would say that the salary level you mention is just about average, nothing fancy. But then I do not know how desperate some financial writers may be around here...

Unfortunately salary levels are much more intransparent here then compared to the US I am affraid.

Good luck and may a TTner be interested and get the job!

Cheerio

Hello ,

THis is S from India, I think I did not provide proper information,sorry for that but thanks for all the posts. so here goes.

My Yearly salary will be 25000 Euro Grotto,
Company will give accommodation +Car+Car running exp+Private medical & yes since i would be here for only 2 years there is no social security contribution or cutting.

I have to take care of Income taxes here.

I will be taking care of accounting & finaance for 3 plants in europe region 1 in germany & 2 in italy Each having sales of around 30 Mill Euros.

Sorry for giving out incompelete information.

Hope for some answers.

S.

How come "S from India" is not paying SS contributions?.I believe these contributions are mandatory & you cannot opt out of it.I am here for just 1 year but I am paying SS from day one!!! .However the only thing you can get/claim back is the Pension Insurance if you are in Germany for less than 4 or 5 years... but that too ,after 2 years of leaving Germany

There is special provision for Persons working for short period of time, where social contributions are not required...

as told t me by employer...

"GROTTO" was just too funny even for me...

S

I'd say that is a pretty grotty salary - also at that level you will not be eligible for private medical insurance (I believe).

I think it is unlikely that you are not required to pay social contributions. If your company has told you that, it is most likely they are just going to take care of them for you and not take it out of your salary. You'll still be paying it though.

That's a terrible salary, although if you add on the costs of accommodation, a car and medical insurance, it looks a bit better.

€25k salary + approx €10k accommodation + approx €5k car and €3k medical and you're somewhere between €40k and €45k.

I would still be asking for more though...

OK,

So, I am going to spend preety much everything & not save anything?

Remember that this would (should) also be taxed as "Geldwertevorteil" (spelling?)

Hallo Siddhantji,

I think your paypackage is pretty good. As far I understood from previuos post

Brutto is €16000. I think you will be paying tax on this Gross pay.If so there is no tax upto this limit for a married couple with single earner. If ima correct that comes to €1300 per month.
Allowance €750
accommodation €750( assuming 750 rent for a family in Heilbronn area, which is reasonable)
Car+Car exp €500( assuming aleasing rate of 500 per month for a reasonable car say VW Golf).

That comes to a NetSalary of 3300 per month, which is equal to 60K Gross. Upto this point it seems pretty good. But...

If at all you are eligible to a private health insurance (assuming a temp. worker for 2 yrs), if your comapany pays it's half to pvt. insurance,you may still need to pay €200-€250 as insurance premiums for a couple. Even worse if you have children.

And your gross salary will be stated 16K, which could have significant effect if you wan to have a mobile connection, mortgage from a bank...

To be honest, it sounds like a weird deal they are offering you. For example, in the German system you wouldn't earn enough to choose to go private. It's like they've got you in on an external contract, like you're not actually living in Germany. I'm not sure how legal this is, or if you understand correctly what they are offering you.

If your primary residence is Germany, and you live here for more than 6 months of a year, then you have to pay taxes here. If you have to pay taxes here, you also have to pay all the other social insurances, including public health care (which is compulsory at your salary level). This is not a choice, unless you are a contractor.

If you are a contractor for the company, then I believe you'd have to organise your own Visa's and set yourself up as a legal contractor in Germany - something that I would imagine quite difficult if coming straight from India. I doubt they would be able to sponsor you in this, because if they did, it would be clear that you are not a contractor, rather an employee of the company.

They may be going to pay all this for you, but that sounds like a bit of a strange way of doing things.

If they are treating you as truly external, and your primary residence won't be Germany, then you shouldn't be paying any German taxes at all.

Like some other people have mentioned, the car, costs associated with it and the house and any other benefits you get will be liable for tax. So even though your income is only 25k a year, if your benefits are another 25k, then you'll be paying tax like someone earning 50k.

You really need to clarify what they are offering you, because it all sounds unusual to me.

Sorry,

But I am now totally confused.

Some are saying it is comfortable salary,some are saying it is very bad salary.

Also regarding the medical insurance. I have been assured that a complete medical cost will be borne by the company...

Could there be some complications in this deal.

The fact is my company is making acquisition all across europe & they are also very new in european region & I am first person to be posted in europe, so it is a bit nervous for everybody ...

My wife is also going to leave her job & look for job in Germany (Have no idea about on this one- she is an MBA who worked in Bank for a year & then shifted to Lecturership at a university in india after marriage)

S

Trailing spouses are known to have a lot of difficulties finding work here, but neither I nor anyone else here on Toytown can say for certain what opportunities your wife will or will not have for work here. It is something to think about, though.

It's not just a matter of them assuring you that they will cover complete medical costs. You legally must have a medical insurance through a medical insurance company. When you earn less than 50k a year, you MUST go with public insurance.

Normally a company would offer you a salary, and would pay half of your pension, unemployment insurance and health insurance. You might be offered a car if it's necessary for your job, but this will be taxed as a benefit. Paying for housing is also something that is strange, and you will get taxed on this amount also.

You have to see how they are handling these issues, because it doesn't sounds like they know what they are doing.

If you are going to be employed by the company in Germany and according to German labour law, then I totally agree with Hutcho above you will face serious tax consequences from all those fringe benefits and your employer should definetly get some expert help in setting this up right. Thomas Zitzelsberger who is advertising on Toytown (www.Expattax.de) is doing this for other foreign companies as I noticed recently when advising a client on reshaping his employment contract after he was to change to German system.

It might be, however, that you will be "entsendet" according to European rules and that - while you will have to pay income tax in Germany as a resident - some of the fringe benefits are not so bad/costly in the end if the whole thing is organized outside Germany. But you definetly need to make sure of this before signing on.

Should the 25k EUR per year become your gross salary after housing allowance, car and health care, then after deducting around 4.500.- to 5.000.- Eur income tax you would have more or less liquidity of 1.600.- EUR per month. For a two-head family with average living costs I would assume than 400-600 EUR per month should do, thus you have free income for investment/saving/luxury of around 1.000.- EUR per month, not too bad. Even though I have a feeling as if you are underpaid in this job but hopefully someone else from the accounting profession here on TT can answer that better then me

With regards to your wife: there are a lot of new and striving MBA schools all over Germany and depending on what courses your wife would fell confident to teach; I would assume that she won't find it to hard to be able to teach on a contract base. Finding employment is a different issue...

Cheerio

I am a Chemical Engineer from India. I have done chemical engineering in India. It is a 4 year course and called there University. I think in Germany it will be recognized as Diploma course.

I have been working since 2001 as Chemical engineer/Project Engineer/ Sr Executive Projects and then Planning and Production manager.

Is there any body have idea about a salary range a person like me can obtain ?

I am moving Hamburg on the basis of family reunion to my spouse who is a Romanian citizen.
We have to bear the house rent, food and travel in Hamburg.
What do you think will be enough for both of us to stay comfortably and simply ?

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I only know what you will earn if you start as a chemist in Germany. 50k€ if you have a diploma, 58k as a PhD
That gives you some ballpark figures. However, since Germany doesn't have enough engineers you may get more.
http://www.gdch.de/ks/service/tarife_industrie.htm

... some more information on starting salaries for engineers.: http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/jobundber...,514203,00.html

Hello,
i've been offered a position in Hamburg as Product Manager. i currently work in Sao Paulo, Brazil on a simillar position, on the same company. my earnings (sal+bonus) in Sao Paulo, if converted to Euro, are around E80k per year (gross). taxes in brazil eat 27,5% of the above figure. i also have a company car (honda civic).
I have 2 kids (4 years and 3 month old) which will need international school in Hamburg. I have no idea on these costs. my wife will have to quit her job here in order to join me to Hamburg.
can someone give me some hints on education costs, house rental and so on? also, what would be a good salary?
thanks beforehand.

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Hello, I found this forum through a google search when studying German salaries and I thought I would join and ask for some advice. I am thinking of moving to Germany so I am gathering information and studying up on it. I have already had a short conversation with an ex-UK resident who lives there, a member of my family.

I am qualified with a grade 8 distinction. have been teaching for the last 4 years private and employed. Have plenty live performance experience. Probably some other stuff too. 27 years of age.

So far going by my research I have found out that Germany is currently trying to encourage skilled proffesionals. I realize that knowing the language is going to be important so I am currently learning it and aim to get good.

I would like to ask what kind of wages are on offer for music teachers in Germany or where I might be able to go t ofind this out? I cant find anything that specific so far in my research. Also if anyone knows anything in General about the music industry over there. Teaching is a preffered secure job while performance is my vocational preference.

thanks,

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you need to understand that most German schools are run by the governement and each German state is running its schools according to own rules and regulations. Therefore for 90+ % of German schools your inquiry can not be answered because you need to check with every German state (such as Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Saxony or Berlin) directly to see if they accept applications from someone with your academica and musical background. There are not many private schools in Germany yet (though steadily growing in numbers), they will have different requirements and since they often try to encourage bi-lingual teaching, they might be more interesting for you. And then there are a couple of international schools (just google for them) where you might find it easiest to see if they hire people with your background and teaching topics.

Professionals are - in my experience - mostly wanted in engineering and IT areas, but it could be that certain states have a lack of teachers and try to hire from outside.

Cheerio

i have recently got a job offer from an MNC in NRW. please let me know what salary i can expect when i join as a technical engineer (branch electronics). what would be the normal payment rates for a graduate who doesnt have any previous work experience? what's the percentage of tax that will be deducted?

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You have to pay the employer and they tax you too

Seriously. I would expect around 45 - 55 k at your entry point. Then divide that by two and that is what you are left with.

Maybe 55K is a bit optimistic actually

What's an MNC?


Hmmm, I wouldn't hire you in the first place. Graduates are only useful for filling the coffee machine and making sure there's paper on the photocopier.

Tell you what, ask a question with suitable information provided and you might receive an answer which is actually useful to you.

Hi,

I've just been offered a 34k per year salary. The offer didn't specify if it's gross or net but I would guess it's gross. If it's gross after taxes it goes to around 18k. I wonder if it's a decent salary for two persons to live. The company offering me this is based in a small village (rent for 1 bedroom apartment is around 280 from what i've found so far).

cheers.

If you are married to the other person in the "two persons" you mention, then I doubt that you'll be losing anywhere near the almost 50% in deductions you're suggesting you will

No, I am not married. She's still girlfriend. And I used this link to calculate the net salary.

Ender, I think you may have accidentally clicked "monthly" rather than "yearly" on the salary calculator.

I can only speak for my own area (IT), and from my limited interaction with the labour market in Munich, gross salaries would be around the same as Dublin (I'm from Galway), but net salaries a huge amount lower because of taxation differences. But I'm lead to believe that salaries would be quite a bit lower outside Munich which has a higher than normal cost of living.

According to the calculator you mentioned, 34k would give you 20,811 net (assuming no declared religion). Two people could certainly live on that in a relatively-inexpensive part of Germany in the sense that they won't starve, and could put a roof of some sort over their heads, but it's not going to go very far if split two ways. And if you are in a small village, and depending a lot on which part of Germany you are talking about, your girlfriend might find it quite difficult to get any sort of job at all - and I would assume various unemployment assistances aren't going to apply to someone who has just moved to Germany from scratch (but I don't know for certain). There may be issues with health cover too if you are unmarried.

We're kind used to in Ireland at the moment to the idea that there's always some sort of job available if you are willing to work even if its not particularly glamorous and for minimum wage or whatever. That can't be assumed in Germany. It is highly dependent on where in Germany you are based, and language skills can be a big issue (understandably).

Germany's significantly cheaper than Dublin for a lot of things: eating out, food, drink, entertainment, accommodation etc. But for almost all imported goods, and even a lot of services, it's more or less the same - maybe marginally cheaper, but not dramatically, and sometimes more expensive. There are a lot less stealth taxes however (all those hidden little taxes in Ireland like ATM charges etc.).

For example, you'll probably find that the intercity trains here are great, but expensive at the same time (no more than back home). But the difference is back home, you can often take coaches for a fraction of a cost of the train, whereas here everyone almost always either uses the train or else drives. So there's often no low-budget option available.

You'll probably need a car in a small village, otherwise you and your girlfriend will be very bored...

Indeed, I've put the yearly salary and clicked "monthly". So thanks eof for pointing it. Is good , I squeezed 200 more . Anyway, tough decision to make. Chasing my dream ( the job is 3D animator and btw, I couldn't find anywhere what would a 3D animator earn in Germany and I blame Google for that ) would leave my gf unemployed. She speaks German a bit but not enough for sure to get a job at this moment. Gonna see ...

Np Ender. Good luck with the decision, whatever one you make.

And if you're a 3d animator, you do the exact opposite in your work to me at the moment I do digital image processing on 3d images over time turning the images back into data models!

€80k is sounding about right but it will depend on what exactly a "Product Manager" is. If youre the guy responsible for the new Airbus, its too little, if youre only responsible for sardines at the local fish cannery its too much. Im talking about technical Product manager here, in the worlds of finance or advertising you could halve that or double it, depending.

At that sort of Salary level you will pay something like 33-35% tax and take home approx 55% of your gross after health insurance, social secuirity etc., although you may have some tax advanatages from the kids.

They have a website which states 8,300 - 16200 per year per child depending on grade.


What a "good" salary will be will depend on your desired standard of living. Im guessing 80k buys you more in Sao Paulo than it will in Germany. As a rule of thumb - 80k plus car is a decent living wage for a family with one professional earner that will allow you to live comfortably but not necessarily luxuriously. Paying for the kids will take a serious lump out of that and at the prices quoted above will be a squeeze. There was a salary distribution chart in "Bild" recently (admittedly not the most reliable of sources) which put 80k at the bottom of the top 8% of earners. 80K is a good upper middle to lower senior manager post in a decent sized industrial company. From 100k youre talking department head but youre also getting into very good salary territory.

It all depends on what exactly you are planning to do. Different posts pay different salaries in different industries.

andy m

You would need to get the company to pay the school fees (and ideally the tax too), otherwise it is not affordable on 80k.

Hi All,

I was reading this phorum for last few weeks and I really like that people are so welcome here.

I'm currently in Australia, Melbourne ( moved here more than 3 years ago from Baltic state ). Got plans now to come back to Europe, particular in Germany, southern regions ( I really get used to worm weather during last 3 years ).
My main question is, What is average salary in Munich or other Southern region cities in IT, partuclular for Infrastructure Architect/Designer ( Virtualisation, e-Commerce) with 9 years experience in IT and last 3 years in banking industry?
I can say that average salary in Australia for this role is around AUD $110-120K p.a gross income, which gives you about AUD $6K per month net income. But with the huge inflation and verry hight interest rates in Australia, cost of living starts to be verry high...for example just renting a 3 bedroom home would cost you about 1.5K p.m and it's around 35km from CBD... Buying the house starts to be verry unreal.
What is the situation in Germany? How expensive is life there? Maybe there are people on the phorum who moved from Australia to Germany and they can compare the cost of living?

Thanks guys.

Hi
I am working in Hongkong as a IT MANAGER, I got offer Euro 75k per annum
I am married and two kids , my wife is not working.
Is this package is enough to cover my family and save some thing.
I have to send my sons to international school (Primary)
After deducting the tax how much money i get in Net Per month

rds

raj: please do nbot double post here, its no good neticette and annoying on top of it!
hopefully Bob-the-editor will merge it anyway...

And why is it so hard to research a little bit before posting, me wonders? So many answers already here on Toytown, collected wisdom of years and from thousands of ExPats
Cheerio