Median automation engineer in Germany made 78 840 € in 2025, according to government statistics

https://web.arbeitsagentur.de/entgeltatlas/beruf/59351

You can't trust a quick google search nowadays for anything. I work in Germany. Any engineer making that much money has to be a senior at a higher position with loads of responsibilities (which means the average is nowhere near), plus living in a city that is considered expensive. Also, half that money goes to taxes. (someone has to pay for the universal healthcare afterall)

The German value seems very suspect. Glassdoor, for the same job role, says €53,000 to €80,000 per year which is probably lower than the truth (Glassdoor overweighs junior roles) but looks much more realistic to me.

This is such a misconception. There is no such thing as universal healthcare in Germany. Everyone pays for it as a mandatory percentage from their salaries every month as a health insurance fee. You can’t opt out from it and there is a very high barrier to switch to a private health insurance which can be cheaper if you’re young and healthy.

The fucked up part is that the higher your salary you end up paying more money to receive the same service as someone paying way less with a lowers salary. Think of it as one paying 5$ for Netflix and other paying 50$ to watch the same shows with no change in service offering.

Also, since covid times the health service has degraded significantly. You have to wait months to get an appointment for a specialist and also if you are single then you would be the one paying the most for it.

Further, from a 100k salary you take only 58k home (Single person that is Tax class I). Keep in mind 100k salary is not that common in Germany and only a handful of people earn that much. This site calculates the take home salary and taxes/social contributions. (https://www.brutto-netto-rechner.info/gehalt/gross_net_calcu...)

You between 25-30 vacation days and work time can be flexible depending on where you work.

I would say Germany is a good place if you’re married and have kids. Then you get a lot of subsidies from the government and it’s relatively cheap to raise children in Germany. But if you’re young and single, you will be punished for that will be taxed the most.

It’s really not a disputed fact at all that engineering jobs in the US pay more than in Europe, but that European jobs have more benefits such as vacation and social security, and US generally has higher cost of living.

I am surprised that this suddenly is a “based on what data?” discussion.

It has always been an apples / oranges comparison.

The vacation time is genuinely better, yeah.

The universal healthcare is hard to quantify - because most decent companies include health insurance in the US and the quality of the public healthcare provision in Europe can be quite patchy (i.e. location-dependent)

Remember that you are comparing gross salaries too, and taxes are much higher in Germany so the engineer ends up with much less take-home pay.

Former member of the Senior Management for a huge global bank operating in Germany.

1. These averages are an average. Rarely are they paid. I don't know where these numbers are from but the these numbers are for top earners in good paying industries.

There are junior, normal and senior devs, sometimes above is a lead dev. Business maybe has 2-3 leads that govern a head count of dozens, and many working off-shore.

It is called blended average. People who rank in 107k are paid including bonuses. And rarely make any further wage jumps. The dev who is paid 200k fixed in Germany is a myth, not even close to 120k.

Germany hates IT and devs. Business comes first, and anything and everything regarding IT is considered a cost factor, a necessary burden.

2. Freelancers

Freelancers rake in more money due to tax deductions. So a day rate of 800-1000EUR per month is a pay off and freelancers have to take care of the taxes etc.

Companies on the other hand can deduct those "investments" and roughly pay half the price in the end. So, this is the problem with employment: you are a cost factor and you are a liability from the beginning due to worker rights etc.

Germany punishes workers as well as freelancers. But I could not raise payment as I saw fit. Germany means yearly total times 1,25 = total cost for a company ("employers' part of the tax" as sugar coating for taxes above 60%).

100 workers with a yearly raise of 2-5% in payments amount exponentially and are a risk factor especially considering the fact that productivity rarely increases as well as value to the company on average. So ever increased payments over a span of 10-20 years.

That is the problem with the system: socialism favors keeping you poor. Don't steal people and companies their hard earned money, lower taxes, allow for higher payments at will not by "number comparison and increase to all" and let companies workers decide where they spend their bucks.

3. Conclusion You might wonder how much the guys really perceive on their bank account in the end. It may be lower than you think. Rule of fist: if you do not immediately make the switch to stay in the US you have lots of cuts along the way: company share, taxes.

Before I went to Senior Management I was totally on your page. Now knowing both sides I see the matrix so to say. I am still on your side however business doesn't benefit from all the taxes.

Maybe the engineer makes 90K, but there are still thousands in social contributions. Can be up to 15K.