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JOBS

REVEALED: What are Germany’s top-paying jobs?

Germany's most lucrative professions and sectors have come to light in recent data released by several digital career and recruitment platforms.

Published: 23 October 2023 12:55 CEST
Germany's top paying jobs and sectors have been revealed by online portals Stepstone and kununu.
Germany's top paying jobs and sectors have been revealed by online portals Stepstone and kununu. Photo: Pexels/Ketut Subiyanto

When it comes to choosing a career, there are many factors to take into consideration, but one aspect that often looms largest is potential income.

Though openly talking about what you earn is still something of a taboo in Germany, you now don’t have to ask around to find out different professions earn, thanks to recent research by online job portals, . 

READ ALSO: 7 ways to talk about money like a German

Career website kununu, jobs portal Stepstone and recruitment agency Robert Half have recently released their findings on the top-earning jobs in the country. This is how they break down. 

Germany’s top-paying professions

Career website kununu regularly collects salary data on various professions in Germany, giving them a current database containing over two million salary reports covering 900 different job roles.

Their most recent report has revealed that, on average, Medical advisors are Germany’s highest earners – receiving an average salary of €85,800 per year. Medical advisors are medical-scientific experts who bridge the gap between medical practice and scientific research.

These professionals are closely followed by pilots, who earn an annual average of €85,700, and doctors, with a yearly pay packet of €84,300 on average.

According to the kununu study, these are the top 10 highest-paying jobs in Germany with the average annual salaries: 

  1. Medical advisor – €85,800
  2. Pilot – €85,700
  3. Doctor – €84,300 
  4. Management consultant – €82,500
  5. Program manager – €82,400
  6. Lawyer – €82,400
  7. Software architect – €82,300
  8. Portfolio manager – €80,600 
  9. Legal counsel – €79,700
  10. New channel manager – €78,700

While average earnings are an important factor for job seekers to consider, the potential for salary growth is also an aspect worth thinking about. Potential for salary growth is not only industry-dependent but also relies on an employee’s personal performance and negotiation skills when dealing with employers.

While comprehensive data on salary growth may be limited, the recruitment agency Robert Half has gathered data on more than a thousand salaries, producing insights into 16 professions with the most significant salary growth.

Medical professionals are amongst the highest earners in Germany. Photo: Pexels/Karolina Grabowska

Top of the list are IT Consultants, whose salaries increase by an average of 83 percent from entry-level to top professionals. Tax assistant salaries rise by an average 79 percent throughout their careers, while Scrum master (agile project managers most often working in the IT sector) salaries rise by an average 76 percent. 

Legal counsel positions seem to be an attractive career choice, as they appear in both lists, and offer both high initial salaries and substantial salary growth (72 percent).

The median salaries

Beyond the average salary, which is calculated by adding all salaries and dividing by the number of data records, another vital metric for salary comparison is the median. This is because the average salary can be heavily influenced by extremely high or low earners.

The median, on the other hand, represents the middle value in a dataset. In simpler terms, it’s the point at which half the salaries are lower, and half are higher.

READ ALSO: The words and phrases you need to navigate the German job market

The job portal Stepstone conducted an analysis of over 560,000 salary data sets, revealing an average gross salary of €53,118 and a median of €43,842 for the whole of Germany.

According to Stepstone’s study, doctors continue to rank among the highest earners, with a gross median salary of €93,800 –  more than double the national average. Other well-paid professions include employees in the field of consulting (€54,000 annually), engineering (€52,600), and IT occupations (€52,000).

READ ALSO: Which regions in Germany need foreign engineers?

According to Stepstone, these are the top 10 highest-paying jobs and professional groups in Germany with the average and median annual salaries: 

Profession and professional groups

  1. Doctors: €93,793 (median) €97,983 (average)
  2. Consulting: €53,956 (median) €60,398 (average)
  3. Engineering: €52,577 (median) €58,309 (average)
  4. IT: €52,045 (median)  €58,851 (average)
  5. Marketing & PR: €49,249 (median) €57,400 (average)
  6. Banking, Finance & Insurance: €48,415 (median) €59,997 (average)
  7. Human Resources: €46,738 (median) €56,130 (average)
  8. Sales: €43,605 (median)  €53,419 (average)
  9. Trades: €39,956 (median) €42,578 (average)
  10. Health & Social Services: €38,139 (median) €42,435 (average)

Experience correlates with salary

It’s no secret that beginners in a profession earn less than seasoned veterans. According to the Stepstone figures, on average, there is nearly a €15,000 difference between entry-level employees and experienced workers.

An employee with less than a year of professional experience earns an average of €35,003. In contrast, an employee with 11 to 25 years of experience earns an average annual salary of €49,969. Here’s how the figures for the median salaries break down:

  • Less than one year: €35,003
  • 1–2 years: €36,166
  • 3–5 years: €40,043
  • 6–10 years: €44,374
  • 11–25 years: €49,328

Salary Comparison – Top industries 2023

The Stepstone study also revealed that the best-paid industry in Germany is the banking sector, with an annual gross salary of about €57,631. The aerospace industry takes second place with a median salary of €56,153 per year. These are the top 5 sectors with median and average salaries:

  • Banking: €57,631 (median) €65,950 (average)
  • Aerospace: €56,153 (median) €64,209 (average)
  • Pharma: €54,822 (median) €65,043 (average)
  • Insurance: €53,852 (median) €62,202 (average)
  • Automotive: €52,284 (median) €63,101 (average)

On the flip side, industries like hospitality (€34,195), agriculture and forestry, fishing, and horticulture (€36,141) pay the least annually.

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TAXES

EXPLAINED: How do you close down a freelance business in Germany?

Leaving the country? Got a steady job offer you can’t say no to? Winding down your self-employment activities in Germany still requires taking a few bureaucratic steps.

Published: 15 May 2024 09:07 CEST
Updated: 15 May 2024 10:57 CEST
EXPLAINED: How do you close down a freelance business in Germany?

Striking out on your own as self-employed is one of the scariest – and potentially most rewarding things – you can do. In Germany, it also comes with its own set of rules around tax and social insurance.

But there are times when – for whatever reason – it may be time to move on.

Whether it’s because you have an exciting new opportunity or things haven’t quite worked out the way you hoped due to economic pressures – winding down self-employment the right way is crucial to avoid gaps in your health and social insurance coverage in Germany.

The steps you have to take are also a bit different depending on if you are new self-employed (Freiberufler) or have a trade licence (Gewerbe) – with some steps not being necessary for new self-employed.

Trade licences are automatically cancelled if the licenced person dies or the company ceases to have financial assets.

Resigning the trade licence or declaring it dormant

New self-employed people like writers or speakers don’t need to go through this step, as they don’t need a trade licence.

Those who have a trade licence will need to contact their competent local authority and resign it, or declare it dormant (withdrawing the licence). If you’re only winding down temporarily, declaring your trade licence dormant instead of de-registering completely may save you a few headaches later.

You may have to do this in person at your local trade office – or Gewerbeamt – depending on whether your local authority allows online de-registration or not. You’ll need to bring your official ID, trade licence, confirmation of registration and possibly an extract from the trade register. Fees are dependent on your local authority and can range from being free to €25.

You can declare the date you intend to resign the licence – which can be in the future. To ensure no gaps in your social insurance protections, including health insurance, set this date for the day before whatever comes next. For example, if you’re starting a new job on January 1st set the date for your trade licence to expire as December 31st.

The trade office will typically notify your local tax office, so you won’t need to do this yourself.

Notifying your tax office

If you’ve had to resign your trade licence, you can skip this step as your trade office will do it for you. If you’re a Freiberufler without a trade licence you need to resign, you’ll have to notify your local Finanzamt, or tax office, yourself.

Luckily, this is a pretty easy step.

First, you need to decide whether you’re ceasing operations completely or wanting to continue them part-time. If you’re ceasing completely, you’ll end up surrendering your self-employed tax number.

You don’t have to do this though. If you think you may still carry on some self-employed business as a side gig, you can inform the tax office that you intend to do so and keep your number.

At that point, the tax office should treat you as a Kleinunternehmer – or a small business making less than €22,000 a year. Having this status means that you will not need to pre-pay taxes or charge VAT on your invoices for freelance side projects.

If you derive any income from your side gig in the future though, you’ll still have to file a tax return.

READ ALSO: Can I have a freelance side gig as an employee in Germany?

Notifying your health insurance

While different private plans in Germany may have different notification requirements, if you have public health insurance in Germany, you should notify them that you’re winding up your self-employed business. Specifically, advise them exactly what date you’re wrapping up.

Again, this should be right before you start your new job or leave the country, to ensure no gaps in your coverage.

If ending your self-employment in Germany, take care to ensure that there’s no gaps in your health insurance coverage, by giving the right date for when you’re ceasing activity. You don’t want to be caught without coverage. Photo by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash

If you are in an artistic profession and thus pay pension, health, and nursing insurance through the Artist Social Insurance Fund (KSK), you should also advise them as well. If you’re leaving self-employment completely, you can typically give notice to KSK as to when it’s ending.

If you’re not, and intend to still make money freelancing as a side gig, they should know this as well. In this event, you’ll no longer pay health or care insurance through KSK, as this is covered through your main job.

You may need to continue to pay pension contributions through KSK based on the amount of money you still make from self-employed activities — depending on how much of them you continue.

KSK: How creative freelancers can pay less for German health insurance

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