What is actually a good salary in Germany – and where do you stand yourself?

One thing in advance: There are various opinions on what constitutes a good salary and what does not. In fact, everyone sees things differently and has different needs in life.

Nevertheless, there are a few figures and benchmarks that at least show where the rest of the German citizens are in terms of salary. For this, professionals do not have to compete with the Aldi brothers or the BMW heiress Susanne Klatten. That wouldn’t make much sense. Click here for our New Finance special.

In order to get an approximate feeling of what a normal, good or very good salary is in Germany, a few fairly simple numbers and standards are sufficient: For example, there is the average annual net income, which is around 25,583 euros in Germany.

Calculated for the month, that’s around 2,131 euros net. This value gives an impression of where you stand, whether you are average, above or below. It is also exciting to see where economic institutes such as IW Köln draw the line between low-income earners, the middle class and the upper class.

If we break down the income brackets want to determine using the data from the IW Colognethen a single person with a monthly net income of between EUR 1,121 and EUR 1,495 belongs to the low-income middle group.

With a net income of 1,496 euros to 2,804 euros, a single person belongs to the middle class in the narrower sense. Between EUR 2,805 and EUR 4,673, he belongs to the high-income middle class and with more than EUR 4,673 to the relatively rich. On the basis of these numbers and standards, it is initially possible to see where working people stand in comparison. But that alone is not meaningful.

In the end it means that working people also have to compare themselves with their own professional group to find out whether they are getting a good or a bad salary in the narrower sense.

There are countless comparison calculators on the web, such as from gehalt.de or gehaltsvergleich.com. Here your own salary is compared to the salaries of people in the same job, the same position and with the same experience at the same location. This shows how working people are paid within their target group – whether they are right on track or even over- or underpaid.

A whole new component to the equation, however, is that of rising inflation. In March it was last at +7.2 percent. In the months before, it even marked a high of +10.2 percent. Strictly speaking, working people would have to receive a net salary increase of the same amount so that the salary does not grow negatively.

Of course, for many people it is more than absurd that this is happening. Many working people will probably have to sit out the inflation phase or just cushion the phase with smaller increases. If you can increase your own salary by the current inflation rate, you are doing something to counteract the depreciation of the currency.

By the way, a number worth knowing: The Savings Banks Association announced a few weeks ago that households with a net income of 3,600 euros and less would have to fall back on savings more and more frequently. President Helmut Schleweis warned at a press conference that, according to internal calculations, a whopping 6o percent of German households will in future have no money left at the end of the month.

But beware! These numbers and scales also have their pitfalls. Because of course they only say how high-income a person is, but not how satisfied. If you have to work 60 hours a week to be in the high-income middle class, you should consider whether it’s worth it. Because money alone does not bring happiness.

For many it is just as important to have time – for family, for friends, for themselves. For example, if you work 30 hours in the middle class and have a net income of 2,000 euros, you could say: “I have a good salary and I am satisfied !“

Luck is one thing in general: According to Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and Angus Deaton, economist, luck stagnates above a certain amount. In a study, the researchers found that doubling the annual income from 15,000 to 30,000 euros increased the subjects’ happiness enormously. If the annual income grows from 30,000 to 60,000 euros, the effect also sets in. After that, however, luck is over, they say. Even someone who suddenly earns 120,000 euros does not feel any more satisfied.

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