For more salary transparency: Stepstone publishes largest Salary Report 2025 to date

Press release
For more salary transparency: Stepstone publishes largest Salary Report 2025 to date

• Stepstone Salary Report 2025: Over 1 million salary data analyzed for the first time
• Gross median salary in Germany is 45,800 euro
• EU directive on pay transparency is coming: over half of companies are not yet prepared

DÜSSELDORF, 8. January 2025 — It’s a topic that everyone is interested in, but many are reluctant to talk about: salary. The taboo subject number one also continues to preoccupy companies: although the EU Pay Transparency Directive must be implemented in Germany by mid-2026, half of companies do not feel sufficiently prepared for it (50%). A further 21 percent say they are not yet aware of the directive. This was the result of a recent Stepstone survey of 5,800 people, including over 800 recruiters, on the occasion of the Salary Report 2025.

“In just a year and a half, the EU will be demanding more salary transparency from businesses,” says The Stepstone Group labour market expert Dr. Tobias Zimmermann. “Even if the requirement first needs to be translated into German law, salary transparency will be an integral part of the labor market. And that's a good thing: recruiting will become more efficient and fairer, while job seekers will be able to make better-informed decisions. Companies now have the time to adapt their structures. That's why we at Stepstone have for years been supporting employers in the best possible way with relevant salary information and ensuring greater salary transparency — so that every employee finally knows their market value at all times and understands what they can earn.”

Stepstone has been publishing salary ranges on jobs at Stepstone.de since 2021 and offers guidance on what people can earn with its salary planner. In its annual Salary Report, Stepstone also shows what people in Germany earn. For this year's report, over one million salary data items were analyzed by the job platform for the first time.

Stepstone Salary Report 2025: Gross median salary in Germany is 45,800 euro
According to the Stepstone Salary Report 2025, full-time employees in Germany make a median gross salary of around 45,800 euro per year. This means that there are exactly the same number of salaries that are lower and higher than the median salary. More than 1 million salary data points were analyzed. The survey is representative of the working population at federal and state level according to the criteria of age, gender, university degree and economic sector.

But not everyone in Germany is earning the same: Hamburg is at the top, followed by Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Bavaria, each with gross median salaries of over 50,000 euro. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is at the bottom of the states. Women working full-time earn a gross median salary of 42,100 euro, while men earn 48,000 euro. The gender pay gap therefore amounts to 12.4 percent. The adjusted gender pay gap is 5.7 percent.

The most important results of the salary report at a glance:

Occupational groups: Top salaries for doctors

• Doctors earn the highest median salary. According to the 2025 salary report, 98,750 euro.
• In second place is the occupational group of banks and insurance companies (59,500 euro), followed by engineers (58,500 euro) and management consultants (58,250 euro).
• Employees in wholesale and retail (37,750 euro) and in the hospitality industry (37,250 euro) are at the bottom of occupational group list.

Company size and industry: The larger the company - the higher the salary - especially in banking

• The higher the number of employees, the higher the salary. In large companies with over 5,000 employees, a gross median salary of 57,750 euro can be expected. Employees at employers with up to 50 employees earn 40,500 euro.
   
• In an industry comparison, banks pay the highest salaries and a gross median salary of 65,500 euro. This is followed by the aerospace industry (62,000 euro) and the pharmaceutical industry (60,750 euro). However, insurance companies (59,750 euro) and the chemical industry (58,250 euro) are also in the top five.
   
• At the bottom of the list are the hospitality industry (37,250 euro), agriculture, forestry, fishing and horticulture (38,500 euro) and the leisure, tourism, culture and sports industry (41,250 euro).

Gender pay gap: women earn 12.4 percent less

• With a median salary of 42,100 euro, women in full-time positions earn 12.4 percent less than men (48,000 euro).
• If factors such as age, industry, occupational group, education, professional experience, company size, federal state, city and personnel responsibility are excluded, the adjusted gender pay gap remains at 5.7 percent.

Region: Salaries in Hamburg, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse around 10 percent above average

• Hamburg has the highest salary at 52,000 euro. Baden-Württemberg and Hesse are in second place with 50,250 euro each. Bavaria is close behind with 50,000 euro. The bottom of the states are Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (39,500 euro) and Saxony-Anhalt (39,750 euro).
• In eastern Germany, the gross median salary is 39,250 euro, in western Germany 46,900 euro.
• Among the state capitals, Munich (58,000 euro) and Stuttgart (56,250 euro) stand out. Other major cities with top salaries are Frankfurt am Main (57,250 euro) and Düsseldorf (52,500 euro).

High salary: Staff responsibility and a university degree are top factors

• Graduates earn more: full-time employees with a university degree earn 60,500 euro. This is approximately 40 percent more than employees without a degree (43,100 euro).
• Staff responsibility pays off: Those who manage a team earn a gross median salary of 53,250 euro. Without staff responsibility, the salary is 43,300 euro.
• Job experience has a positive effect on salary. Entry-level employees with less than one year of professional experience earn a salary of 39,000 euro. After six years, this rises to 47,250 euro.

More information:
Download the Stepstone Salary Report 2025 and further information and classifications for employers, managers and recruiters: www.stepstone.de/gehaltsreport [German]

Information for employees and applicants:  https://www.stepstone.de/magazin/gehaltsvergleich [German]

More Information on salary transparency: https://www.stepstone.de/e-recruiting/hr-wissen/gehalt/entgelttransparenzgesetz/ [German]

With Compensation Partner, Stepstone offers companies a solution for setting up fair and competitive salary structures: https://www.stepstone.de/e-recruiting/produkte/compensation-partner/ [German]

About the Stepstone Salary Report 2025
The Stepstone Salary Report 2025 is built on 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 2025 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 is due to changes in the evaluation methodology and the composition of the sample.

Data basis and methodology
For the Salary Report 2025, 1,052,211 remuneration data were analyzed, which were collected between January 2022 and November 2024. Of these, 63% were from men and 33% from women. The proportion of employees with staff responsibility is 31 percent. All salary data is presented in euro, rounded for better readability and indicates the median salary level in 2024, 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 remuneration 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 the values and then dividing by the number of data records. The average value can be distorted by extremely high or low values. A comparison with the median therefore helps to better classify the average value. The median is the value that lies exactly in the middle of all values. This means that there are exactly the same number of salaries that are lower and higher than the median salary.

Gender Pay Gap
The reported gender pay gap describes the unadjusted pay gap, which mixes many salary-relevant parameters such as professional experience and educational background. The unadjusted value compares male and female employees as a combined total. It is to be understood as the difference in annual salary between men and women in relation to the salary of men.
A large part of the salary differences between men and women can, however, be explained by other influences (e.g. age, industry, occupational group, education, professional experience, company size, federal state, city and staff responsibility). If these factors are taken into account in a calculation model, the result is the adjusted gender pay gap. It can be interpreted as the difference in salary between two people who are identical in all considered criteria except gender.

About the Stepstone Job & Salary 2024/2025 survey
Can employees in Germany estimate their market value? How do they feel about salary negotiations? What role does salary play in the job and when applying for a job? And how transparent are people about salary? In November 2024, Stepstone surveyed around 8,600 employees in Germany on these and other topics, including around 1,600 executives and over 800 recruiters. The survey is representative of the German working population by age, gender and education.

About the Stepstone Salary Planner
In addition to the annual Stepstone Salary Report, the job platform Stepstone offers other salary-related services. These include the Stepstone Salary Planner, for which job experts and market researchers have developed an algorithm that provides a very accurate forecast of personal salary levels based on the most important salary drivers (e.g. industry, job, experience). Further information can be found at: www.stepstone.de/gehaltsplaner

About The Stepstone Group 
The Stepstone Group is a leading global digital recruitment platform that connects companies with the right talent and helps people find the right job. AI-driven job marketplaces and programmatic-powered marketing solutions connect more than 130 million job applications with around 140,000 employers every year. In 2023, The Stepstone Group generated revenue of around €1 billion. The Stepstone Group operates in more than 30 countries - including Stepstone in Germany, Appcast in the USA and Totaljobs in the UK. The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany and employs more than 3,500 people worldwide. For more information: www.thestepstonegroup.com/en/

Contact for media inquiries:
The Stepstone Group media relations
press@stepstone.com