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Wages in Germany: How much does a doctor, hairdresser, cashier earn? Wage rankings 2021

Wages in Germany: Merkur.de published a new wage ranking that confirmed the fact that the best-paid people in Germany are doctors. Medical practitioners in managerial positions earn over EUR 196,000 a year.

From the published list, we learnt which other specialists can count on great salaries in Germany and what earnings can be counted on by hairdressers, waiters, nurses and drivers.

Germany’s best-paid jobs

Anyone who wants to earn good wages in Germany should think about being a doctor as medical practitioners have a good reputation in Germany. This was demonstrated by the new 2021 payroll atlas of the Salary.de internet portal.

The number one best-paid job was the chief physician. Currently, the mean earnings for this position are EUR 196,300 gross a year. They are followed by senior doctors with an equally impressive gross annual salary of € 121,700. For comparison: specialists in other industries and managers earn only EUR 43,200 gross a year (median *). 

Anyone looking for wholesome salaries outside of medicine will also find good salaries in other management positions, such as sales control (EUR 94,800 gross) and regional sales (EUR 90,800 gross), as can be seen in the published list:

placepositionMedian * salary (gross) per yearAverage salary (gross) per year
1Chief physician, resident physician196 251 euro212,808 euros
2Senior doctor121,748 euros129,697 euros
3Sales control / sales management94 796 eurosEUR 103.836
4.Regional sales manager of investment goods90,812 euros96 868 euros
5 Commercial manager90,661 euros101,900 euros
6.IT industry management88,610 euros96,076 euros

In many other occupations, Germans earn so little that their monthly salary is barely enough for them to survive. The sad “first place” in the ranking of the worst paid jobs is occupied by kitchen helpers, who have to deal with an average salary of just  23,454 euros per year . Hairdressers are right behind them, and waiters are in third place.

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The worst paid jobs in Germany:

placepositionMedian * salary (gross) per yearAverage salary (gross) per year
1Kitchen help21,907 euros23,454 euros
2Hairdresser23,202 euros24,434 euros
3Waitress23,619 euros24,884 euros
4customer service call center employee25,200 euros28,101 euro
5Receptionist25 372 euro27,282 euros
6CashierEUR 26 57228,363 euros
7Cook27,195 euros29,053 euros
8Dental assistant27,993 euros29,461 euros
9Nursing staff28 002 euro30,357 euro
10Professional driver28,436 euros30,467 euros

Source: Merkur.de