Salary.de, a company based in Hamburg, has analysed the starting salaries from over 43.000 jobs to determine where academic graduates can expect to earn the most.

Has the coronavirus crisis affected salaries?

With lectures at universities and colleges restarting in Germany this autumn, new students may be asking themselves what they want to gain from their education. A springboard into academic research? Or perhaps a means to enter a certain profession? On the other hand, some students simply go through education simply for the promise of greater financial gain.

Luckily for these individuals, Salary.de have analysed salary data from 43.782 jobs by subject, industry, region and company size to determine where you are most likely to start earning the big bucks. Even more fortunate is that starting salaries in Germany are not expected to fall due to the coronavirus crisis, as company wage structures must remain uniform and internally comparable. It would also result in a competitive disadvantage on the labour market.

Best salaries in Germany by federal state

In Germany, the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg offers graduates the best starting salary: an average of 52.100 euros. Students can also expect a high starting salary in Hesse (51.800 euros) and Bavaria (49.600 euros).

In the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg, graduates can expect significantly lower salaries. In fact, in all of Germany’s eastern federal states, with the exception of Berlin, starting salaries are below 40.000 euros.

Best salaries by profession

In Germany, the chemical industry and the automotive industry boast the highest average salaries, at 55.800 and 53.500 euros respectively. When it comes to starting salaries, those holding an engineering degree earn around 51.000 euros, on average. They are followed by computer scientists (48.400 euros), natural scientists (47.500 euros) and economists (44.300 euros). Humanities scholars command the least when it comes to starting salaries, earning around 33.500 euros.

Salaries from jobs that do not necessarily require a degree are significantly lower; for example, the average income for hotel and restaurant workers is 29.000 euros. "At the start of a career, employees with an academic degree earn around 16.500 euros more than employees without a degree. A university degree has a high impact right at the start of their career," says Philip Bierbach, General Manager of Salary.de.