Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

JOBS

REVEALED: What are the best paying jobs in Austria?

Austria is not a cheap country and taxes are also high, so salaries need to match. A new analysis sheds some light on the jobs with the highest salaries.

Published: 30 January 2023 16:53 CET
Updated: 3 June 2023 09:22 CEST
REVEALED: What are the best paying jobs in Austria?
A man withdraws money from an ATM. (Photo by PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP)

Life in Austria is getting more expensive by the day. From high heating costs and rents to hiked-up prices in the supermarket, it seems everybody has to dig deeper in their pockets.

In the current economic environment, workers are bargaining hard for pay rises to keep pace with inflation. But it could also make sense for some to consider a career change.  

According to a recent analysis by the salary comparison portal Kununu, 15 occupations have exceptionally high salaries in Austria. 

READ ALSO: How much do you need to earn for a good life in Austria?

The ranking is based on two million salary details in the portal’s database.  In order to give job seekers and job starters a meaningful ranking of the best-paid professions, the ranking also excluded some occupations such as jobs with managerial function, generic job titles such as “manager” or “working student”, and fields with less than 200 salary data.

What is the best-paid profession in Austria?

The best-paid job in Austria is not a complete surprise: “medical doctor” tops the list of Austrian occupations with good salaries, with an average wage of €72,000 annually.

According to the Kununu salary check, the average starting salary for the profession is a gross annual salary of €40,500, while the top pay is €129,000. In the end, how much you earn as a doctor depends on the speciality (surgery, urology, gynaecology, etc.) and your career path. The average annual salary for the profession of chief physician in Austria is €113,500 gross yearly salary. 

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: How to maximise your annual leave in Austria in 2023

Working in Austria also has other perks, such as long vacation times (averaging five weeks), plenty of holidays (13 federal holidays), and an excellent social system for parenthood, sickness or unemployment.

What are the other high-paying jobs in Austria?

Position

          Occupation

Average annual salary

1

     Doctor/Physician

€72,000

2

     Software engineer

€69,000

3

     Key Account Manager

€63,800

4

     Tax Consultant

€63,400

5

     Country Manager

€63,400

6

     SAP Consultant

€62,100

7

     Management Consultant

€61,000

8

     IT Project Manager

€60,500

9

     Sales Manager

€60,300

10

     Product Manager

€59,100

11

     Manager Business Development

€58,800

12

     Risk Manager

€58,500

13

     Scrum Master

€57,900

14

     Requirements Engineer

€55,900

15

     Research Engineer

€55,800

Some of the worst paying jobs in Austria, on the other hand, include Kitchen Assistant (average of €22,900 annually) and Food Vendor (€23,500).

The average salary for a delivery person is €25,800 annually, and for a retail salesperson, € 26,000.

READ ALSO: What the Austrian government’s new pension package means for you

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

WORKING IN AUSTRIA

Can I get unemployment benefits in Austria if I’m self-employed?

If you work in Austria as a freelancer or self-employed person, it may be confusing to understand your rights, especially when it comes to unemployment benefits.

Published: 25 April 2024 13:36 CEST
Can I get unemployment benefits in Austria if I'm self-employed?

Self-employed workers or freelancers know they often have fewer benefits than their employed friends and co-workers. This is usually because companies must pay into several social systems offering mandatory benefits to their workers. But if you are your boss, you might not have contributed to the same systems and, therefore, will not have the same rights.

According to Austria’s Public Employment Service AMS, self-employed persons can pay into unemployment insurance voluntarily to have access to the same benefits.

The agency said that in order to apply for unemployment benefits for the first time, applicants need to have paid into unemployment insurance for 52 weeks in the last 24 months. If they were employees subject to unemployment insurance and then became self-employed workers, that period working in a company also counts towards their observation period, and they may apply for unemployment benefits. 

READ ALSO: What to do when searching for a new job in Austria

If you have already received unemployment benefits previously, the so-called observation period you must be working before drawing the benefit again is at least 28 weeks (196 days) in the last 12 months. 

How can I sign up for unemployment insurance?

This is not done with the AMS, the agency says. Instead, you can contribute to unemployment insurance via your social insurance, which, in the case of freelancers and self-employed people, is the SVS. 

You can sign up in writing, but you have to do so in specific periods, depending on when you start your self-employment. You can check out more HERE.

You are then able to choose between three monthly contribution amounts, €52.14, €208.57 or €312.85 (2024 values), which will significantly influence your daily unemployment benefits: €28.43, €46.35 or €64.11 respectively (2024 values). 

You can apply online for unemployment insurance.

READ ALSO: Can I go on holiday while receiving unemployment benefits in Austria?

How to claim unemployment benefits in Austria

The first step to claiming unemployment benefits in Austria is registering as unemployed with the AMS. Then, you can apply to make a claim.

Applications should be submitted via an eAMS account, which is the AMS’s online portal. Registration for an eAMS account can be found here.

For anyone unsure about this process, the AMS can be contacted by phone or email. The AMS team will then send out an application form for unemployment benefits by post.

SHOW COMMENTS