Stepstone Salary Report 2024: Salary transparency becomes more important
- More and more employees in Germany are making their job application dependent on the salary information in job ads
- Gross median salary in Germany is 43,750 euros
- Stepstone publishes salary report 2024 with over 920,000 current salary data
In the global competition for the best talent, salary transparency from employers is fast becoming increasingly important. According to a recent study by digital recruiting platform The Stepstone Group, 9 out of 10 respondents would be more likely to apply for a job if their future salary was disclosed from the outset. According to the study, 6 out of 10 have even refrained from applying for a suitable position because there was no information on salary. Around 5,700 people in Germany were interviewed for the survey.
"We have been observing for years that salary transparency is becoming increasingly important to people," says Dr. Tobias Zimmermann, labor market expert at The Stepstone Group. "That's why we introduced salary ranges in job advertisements on Stepstone.de at the beginning of 2021. We see first-hand that this information is often the decisive factor in whether an application is actually sent out," he explains. "In times of a great labor shortage, anyone who doesn't disclose a salary is wasting valuable potential. Companies cannot afford to miss out on suitable candidates due to a lack of salary information."
The Stepstone Salary Report 2024 also revealed that the gross median salary in Germany is 43,750 euros. This means that there are exactly the same number of salaries that are lower and higher than the median salary. More than 920,000 salary data items were analyzed. The survey is representative in terms of age, gender, university degree, economic sector and geographical distribution across the German federal states.
Regional salary differences are evident, for example, in light of the East-West divide of more than 17 percent. Hamburg and Hesse top the salary table, with Saxony-Anhalt at the bottom. The median salary for men is around 45,750 euros and around 40,000 euros for women. The gender pay gap amounts to 12.4 percent. Adjusted, the gender pay gap is 5.5 percent.
The most important results of the salary report at a glance
Occupational groups: Doctors are top earners
- Doctors are once again at the top of the salary table. In the 2024 salary report, they achieve a gross median salary of 94,750 euros.
- This is followed by the occupational groups of banks & insurance companies (57,000 euros), engineers (56,000 euros) and management consultants (54,000 euros).
- Employees in wholesale and retail (35,750 euros) and the hospitality industry (35,500 euros) earn the least compared to other occupational groups.
Sectors: Banks and pharmaceuticals with high salaries, large companies particularly attractive
- Banks in particular offer high salaries and a gross median salary of 63,250 euros. This is followed by the aerospace industry (57,750 euros) and the pharmaceutical industry (57,250 euros). In addition, the insurance industry (56,000 euros) is also in the top five.
- At the bottom of the list are the hospitality industry (35,000 euros), agriculture, forestry, fishing and horticulture (36,000 euros) and the leisure, tourism, culture and sports industry (38,000 euros).
The larger the company, the higher the salary. In large companies with more than 5,000 employees, a gross median salary of 53,500 euros can be expected. Employees at organizations with up to 50 employees earn 38,500 euros.
Gender pay gap: women earn around 12 percent less
Women working full-time earn a median salary of 40,000 euros, 12.4 percent less than men (45,750 euros).
Excluding factors such as age, industry, profession, training, professional experience, company size, federal state, city and personnel responsibility on the salary of men and women, the adjusted gender pay gap is only 5.5 percent.
Region: Salaries in Hamburg and Hesse around 10 percent above average, east-west gap around 17 percent
The old German states lead the ranking: Hamburg has the highest salary at 49,750 euros. Hesse is in second place with 47,500 euros, followed by Baden-Württemberg with 47,000 euros. At the bottom of the table are Saxony-Anhalt (36,500 euros), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (36,500 euros) and Thuringia (37,000 euros).
Overall, the east-west divide is 17.2 percent (excluding Berlin) with 37,250 euros in eastern Germany and 45,000 in western Germany.
Among the major cities, Munich (56,250 euros) and Stuttgart (54,500 euros) stand out. They are followed by Frankfurt am Main (EUR 53,250) and Wiesbaden (EUR 53,500).
Education: University degree and staff responsibility provide a salary advantage
A university degree leads to a higher gross median salary: graduates earn 57,500 euros, which is around 33 percent more than the salary of their colleagues without a degree (41,000 euros).
Managers receive a salary that is almost 20 percent higher: employees with personnel responsibility earn 50,000 euros, which is significantly higher than the salary of employees without staff responsibility (41,000 euros).
Professional experience has a positive effect on salary: While entry-level employees earn a salary of 38,250 euros, the salary rises to 48,000 euros after more than 11 years.
The salary figures in the press release have been rounded to improve readability.
More information:
Download the Stepstone Salary Report 2024 and further information and assessments for employers and managers: https://www.stepstone.de/e-recruiting/gehalt-deutschland/
Information and assessments for employees and applicants: https://www.stepstone.de/magazin/gehaltsvergleich
About the Stepstone Salary Report 2024
The Stepstone Salary Report 2024 is drawn from one of the largest salary databases in Germany with salary information by location and region, occupational group, industry, professional experience and much more. The Salary Report 2024 is representative of the working population at national and state level according to the criteria of age, gender, university degree and economic sector. The salary figures are not directly comparable with those from previous years. This results from changes in the evaluation methodology and the composition of the sample.
Database and methodology
For the Salary Report 2024, 921,973 compensation data were analyzed, which were collected in the period from January 2021 to November 2023. 65 percent was from men and 30 percent from women. The proportion of employees with staff responsibility is 31 percent. All salary data is given in euros, rounded to the nearest €250 and indicates the median salary level in 2023, unless otherwise stated. The data refers to the gross annual salary including bonuses, commissions, premiums etc. They are based on salary information collected from full-time employees.
The data basis for the study was compiled from the compensation data in the Stepstone database. The data is collected and scientifically analyzed using the Stepstone Salary Planner on Stepstone.de. All data was reviewed and weighted by our compensation consultants.
What is the median salary? And how does it differ from the average salary?
The average is calculated by adding up all values and then dividing by the number of data records. The average value can be influenced by extremely high or low values. A comparison using the median therefore helps to better classify the average value. The median is the value that lies exactly in the middle of all the values. This means that the number of salaries that are lower and higher than the median salary is exactly the same.
Gender Pay Gap
The stated gender pay gap describes the unadjusted pay gap, which mixes in many other parameters relevant to pay, such as professional experience and educational background. The unadjusted value compares all male salaries against all female salaries. It represents the difference in annual salary between men and women expressed as a percentage of the male annual salary.
However, many of the differences between men’s and women’s salary are due to other factors (such as age, sector, profession, education, professional experience, company size, federal state and city, and staff responsibility). Once these factors are taken into account, we get the adjusted gender pay gap. This can be understood as the salary difference between two people who are identical in every respect apart from gender.
About the Stepstone survey on salaries and salary transparency 2023/2024
How satisfied are employees in Germany with their salary? Can they assess their market value? And how transparent are they about their salary? In November 2023, Stepstone surveyed around 5,700 employees in Germany, including around 1,200 managers, on these and other topics. The survey is representative of the German working population by age, gender and education.
