How do I compare German job offers financially?
A German gross salary is genuinely just the starting point of a real comparison between job offers. Most of the differences that actually affect your life are hiding in the rest of the package.
Worth comparing carefully:
- Location — federal state (which affects church tax registration if applicable) and cost of living locally.
- Tax class implications for couples, especially if marriage or children are on the horizon.
- Company pension (bAV) — particularly the employer subsidy beyond the legal minimum.
- Bonus structure — target, payout history, and how it's taxed.
- Equity (RSUs, stock options) — vesting schedule, country tax treatment, and currency.
- Vacation — days above the legal minimum.
- Parental leave policies — top-ups beyond Elterngeld, return-to-work conditions.
- Mobility benefits — company car, JobRad, mobility budgets.
- Tax-efficient extras — meal vouchers, training budgets, sport memberships.
- Remote-work policy — affects transport costs and quality of life directly.
The strongest comparison turns each item into a rough euro value per year. Even imperfect estimates clarify the picture quickly. For families, parental leave and childcare support can easily outweigh small salary differences. For young singles, vacation, training and equity often matter more than gross.
The goal isn't the highest gross — it's the offer that fits your actual life over the next few years. For non-trivial offers, especially those involving meaningful equity, a second opinion before signing usually pays for itself.
See how Expatease and HORBACH Expats support expats with finance, insurance and pensions in Germany.
Related questions
How much net salary remains from my German gross salary?
German payroll deducts two main blocks before your salary reaches your account: income tax (Lohnsteuer) and social security contributions. The combined effect on a typical employee tends to be substantial — roughly half of gross goes to tax and contributions, with the exact split depending on income level, tax class, family situation and a few other variables.
Read full answer →Salary, benefits and income protectionIs company pension worthwhile for expats?
bAV in Germany usually works through salary conversion (Entgeltumwandlung): a portion of your gross salary flows into a pension contract instead of being paid out to you as net. This reduces both your taxable income and your social contributions today. The trade-off is that the resulting pension is taxable when it pays out later, and your statutory pension entitlements grow slightly less, because the contributions on the converted portion are smaller.
Read full answer →Salary, benefits and income protectionWhat is occupational disability insurance in Germany?
A lot of expats arrive in Germany assuming the famously generous social system will catch them if they ever cannot work. In practice, statutory protection here is more limited than people expect: it only pays out if you can essentially no longer perform any reasonable work, not specifically the work you trained or signed up for. Even then, the amount is usually well below your previous net income.
Read full answer →Salary, benefits and income protectionWhen should I take out occupational disability insurance?
BU pricing is built around two simple factors: how long the insurer is likely to be paying you, and how risky your health and profession look at the moment of application. Both work against you as you get older.
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