How do engineer salaries develop as experience increases?
More years on the job generally translates to rising salaries – a truism that also applies to engineering. According to the VDI’s salary study, engineers with three to five years of professional experience across all industries earn a median salary of 60,000 euros per year. After 15 to 20 years on the job, engineers can expect to earn 85,000 euros annually (also a median value).
How much do engineers in academia earn?
Engineers who opt for academic careers are generally paid according to the Collective Agreement for Public Service Workers (TVöD) or the Collective Agreement for the States (TV-L).
Doctoral candidates and postdocs
Both agreements cover a total of 15 salary levels, with doctoral candidates and postdocs generally paid according to the Salary Group 13 (E13). Within each salary group, there are pay differences according to experience – such that a research assistant with no supervisory responsibilities, for example, earns between 4,200 and 6,100 euros per month.
Professors
For professors, whose salaries are determined by the W salary scale, the following earnings can be expected:
- W1 for junior professors: between approximately €4,600 and €5,300
- W2 for professors: between approximately €5,700 and €7,000
- W3 for professors in management positions: between approximately €6,500 and €8,000
Which industry pays the highest annual salaries?
When comparing engineering salaries, it is important to look at the different industries, since the sector in which engineers work has a greater influence on what they earn than does their specialty. That means that salaries earned are heavily dependent on sector.
According to the VDI, salaries are particularly good in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The lack of sufficient data makes the number somewhat unreliable, but the industry has historically led the way when it comes to engineer salaries. Vehicle manufacturing (54,188 euros) comes in second place, followed closely by the energy sector (52,192 euros gross salary per year) and the electronics industry (52,252 euros). In the fields of energy technology and IT, the association expects incomes to rise in the future as the result of high demand.
Entry-level salaries by company size
There are also significant salary differences according to company size. Whereas entry-level engineers in companies with 1,000 employees or fewer earn an average annual gross salary of 50,000 euros, gross entry-level salaries at larger enterprises are at least 5,000 euros higher. Entry level engineers with a university degree who are hired by a large company can even expect to earn an average of 25 percent more.