What Doctors Earn
Internal medicine, surgery, dentistry: What do medical doctors earn in Germany?
Doctors begin earning decent salaries right at the start of their careers. © iStock.com
Medical doctors are among the top earners in Germany. Salaries, though, are strongly dependent on one’s employer and medical specialisation. Those working for public facilities are paid according to collective bargaining agreements while doctors in private practices can negotiate their own pay or are remunerated according to profits earned. Here, an overview.
Published: 2023-05-07
By: Julia Holzapfel
Salaries earned by medical doctors in Germany are dependent on several factors, such as employer, career experience, specialisation and region. According to the Stepstone Salary Report 2024, doctors earn an average of 94,750 euros per year. At public facilities, such as municipal hospitals or university clinics, salaries are paid in accordance with collective bargaining agreements. In private practices, salaries are negotiated between employer and employee.
Salaries in hospitals and clinics
As a rule, doctors in clinics and hospitals in Germany are paid according to one of two collective bargaining agreements, both of which are negotiated by the Marburger Bund, Germany’s association of medical doctors and the largest such organisation in Europe. The first collective agreement is for doctors working in municipal hospitals and is called TV-Ärzte/VKA and the second is for doctors at university clinics and is called TV-Ärzte TdL. In both of those agreements, doctors are divided into four pay groups:
- Assistant doctor (resident physician)
- Specialist physician
- Senior physician
- Head senior physician
Salaries for chief physicians, research physicians and clinic directors are not determined by the collective bargaining agreements.
Entry-level salaries: What do assistant doctors (residents) earn?
Many young medical school graduates begin their careers as resident physicians, known as assistant doctors in Germany. It is a period during which they receive specialist training at a clinic, a rehabilitation centre or a private medical practice and are paid their first salaries.
Entry-level doctors at municipal hospitals in Germany are paid a gross salary of around 5,300 euros per month, with their counterparts at university clinics earning 5,100 euros per month (plus on-call allowances).
Specialist physician salaries in municipal hospitals and university clinics
Salaries for specialist physicians at municipal hospitals and university clinics are also determined by collective bargaining agreements. The following table provides an overview of what those in pay group 2 (specialist physician) can expect to earn.
Gross monthly pay (in euros) for specialist physicians at municipal and university hospitals
| Collective agreement | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | Level 5 | Level 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
TV-Ärzte / VKA*)– municipal hospitals |
6,979.74 |
7,564.95 |
8,078.81 |
8,378.57 |
8,671.15 |
8,963.74 |
|
TV-Ärzte TdL**) – university clinics |
7,006.25 € |
7,593.70 € |
8,109.49 € |
8,399.34 € |
8,557.35 € |
8,775.73 € |
*) valid until June 30, 2024; **) valid until Jan. 31, 2025
Source: oeffentlicher-dienst.info
Salaries for senior physicians and head senior physicians
Senior physicians at municipal hospitals and university clinics are paid according to experience, with the following salaries current for 2024:
- first three years: gross salary of 8,742.54 euros per month
- from fourth year: 9,256.37 euros per month
- from seventh year: 9,991.49 euros per month
Head senior physicians at municipal hospitals earn basic monthly salaries of between 10,323.14 and 11,648.42 euros. Their counterparts at university clinics can expect similar remuneration, with the collective agreement calling for base monthly pay of between 10,942.53 and 12,347.33 euros starting in 2025. Salaries for research physicians, chief physicians and clinic directors are not determined by the collective bargaining agreement.
Private practices: salaries by specialisation
Whereas salaries for specialists in hospitals and clinics are generally dependent on the specific specialisation in question, there are significant differences among average salaries earned by physicians working in private practices. That is largely due to the fact that pay in private practices is not governed by a collective bargaining agreement. Instead, they are primarily dependent on the area of specialisation, the number of patients treated, and the methods used in that treatment.
According to numbers collected by the German Federal Statistical Office, medical practices in the following areas earned by far the largest revenues in 2021:
- Radiology
- Nuclear medicine
- Radiation therapy
With revenues of 1.1 million euros, they brought in three times as much as medical practices in other areas of specialisation, which earned average revenues of 323,000 euros. Revenues should not be confused with operating profits or earnings because costs – such as those for equipment purchases, staff and taxes/social security contributions – must be deducted.
Revenues of specialised medical practices in 2021
| Area of specialisation | Revenues (gross) |
|---|---|
|
Radiology/nuclear medicine/radiation therapy |
€1,103,000 |
|
Dermatology and venereal diseases |
€344,000 |
|
Orthopaedics |
€362,000 |
|
Urology |
€371,000 |
|
Surgery |
€317,000 |
|
Internal medicine |
€351,000 |
|
Ear, nose, throat (ENT) |
€288,000 |
|
Obstetrics and gynaecology |
€245,000 |
|
General medicine |
€292,000 |
|
Paediatrics |
€271,000 |
|
Neurology/psychiatry/psychotherapy |
€232,000 |
Source: Destatis
If specialists are unwilling or unable to take on the risks and organisational burden of running their own medical practice, they also have the option of working as a salaried specialist in an established practice. By working in a medical practice or medical care centre, they can avoid significant investment costs and can fully concentrate on the primary tasks associated with the medical profession. Salaries paid to doctors employed in medical practices are negotiated between the practice owner and the employee.
Salaries in research and teaching
There are many interesting career opportunities available at universities and research institutions for medical doctors who are more interested in research than in practicing. Those interested in senior research positions are generally expected to have earned a doctorate (doctor of medicine or PhD) first.
- Salaries for doctoral students are determined by collective bargaining agreements for civil servants and staggered by years of service. Gross salaries range between 4,200 and 4,800 euros per month.
- Salaries for postdocs range between 5,000 and 6,000 euros per month, depending on experience.
- Those who pursue academic careers all the way to the level of professor can expect monthly gross salaries of up to 8,000 euros, in accordance with the W pay scale. Performance related bonuses are negotiated directly with the university in question.
Dentist salaries
For many years, the trend in dentistry has been for newly minted dentists to seek jobs in an already established practice. Many are no longer interested in taking over a practice or starting their own. Salaries for dentists employed by a practice are a matter of negotiation, resulting in wide discrepancies. According to ApoBank, average annual gross salaries for dentists are around 71,200 euros. Women dentists tend to earn a quarter less than their male counterparts.
Gross entry-level salaries average 39,100 euros per year, with specialists able to earn gross pay of around 91,700 per year. According to Apobank, the average gross salary earned by a self-employed dentist is around 183,000 per year.
Salaries in veterinary medicine
Veterinarians earn significantly less than their counterparts in human medicine. According to the portal praktischartzt.de, entry level gross salaries for assistant veterinarians is between 2,000 and 2,500 euros per month. Self-employed veterinarians can earn around 2,700 euros per month, according to the platform, and top earners make around 4,000 euros. Those in civil service positions (such as in the Veterinary Office) can expect to make around 3,200 euros per month.
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