Average salaries at German automakers

British managers earn the most
Dutch job starters the least

Although the large automakers rank among the most popular employers, German workers in the automobile and components industry tend to earn only average salaries by European standards. Whether as a job starter with an average gross annual salary of EUR 34,187, a white-collar employee with earnings of EUR 41,068 or an executive with an income of EUR 63,357, they receive more on average than their Belgian and Dutch counterparts. In common with their colleagues in France, Italy and Austria, however, they earn less than Swiss and British workers. These are the latest findings determined by the career portal jobpilot.de in a representative survey of 27,791 employees in the aforementioned eight Western European countries.

Trainees in Switzerland receive the equivalent of EUR 33,163, roughly EUR 1,000 less than their German counterparts. White-collar workers and executives, on the other hand, take home gross salaries of EUR 44,785 and EUR 71,743 respectively ñ that is EUR 3,700 and as much as EUR 8,400 more than their colleagues in the German auto industry. The situation is different in the UK, where only divisional managers (with earnings of EUR 84,141) rank among the absolute winners ñ staff with no managerial function and job starters have annual pay of EUR 37,028 and EUR 24,503 respectively.

Employees in the Netherlands and Belgium are faced with the lowest wages. Job starters can expect EUR 19,254 and EUR 20,097 respectively on their payroll slips. Nor does the situation improve much in subsequent years, especially in the Netherlands, where wages rise to EUR 24,928 ñ while in Belgium the figure improves to EUR 29,007. The same earnings gap opens up between managerial staff: in the Netherlands their gross annual salary stands at a mere EUR 37,931, while their Belgian neighbours earn as much as EUR 51,742.