Salaries in Germany

Pay by Bundesland

The median full-time employee in Germany earned €4,217 a month gross at the end of 2025 (€50,604 over 12 months), up 5.1% on a year earlier, according to the Bundesagentur für Arbeit. Pay is highest in Hamburg (€4,768) and lowest in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (€3,497). In the former east, including Berlin, the median is €3,761, against €4,315 in the west: 13% less, though eastern pay rose faster over the year (+6.3% against +4.8%).

Median gross monthly pay of full-time employees paying social insurance, by place of work, at 31 December 2025, including one-off payments such as Christmas and holiday pay spread over the year. Civil servants (Beamte), the self-employed, apprentices and minijobs are not included. Source: Statistik der Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Bruttomonatsentgelte, published 20 July 2026. Destatis, which surveys employers separately, puts the full-time median at €54,066 a year for 2025, the figure we use in "Is this a good salary?" on salary pages.

Pay by type of work in Germany

The same official data for the 36 main occupation groups of Germany's job classification (KldB 2010). IT and communication technology pay the most, €6,114 a month; cleaning the least, €2,675. Each group mixes helpers, skilled workers and specialists, so a qualified worker in the group usually earns more than its median.

Same source and basis as above. Teaching and public administration count employees only: many teachers and officials are civil servants and are not in these figures. The careers table at the top of this page uses each career's own figures, not these group medians.