Industrial engineers are highly sought-after specialists. Salaries in the industry are sometimes in the six-figure range. An overview.
The good reputation of German engineering reverberates across much of the globe. In this country, however, there is a lack of quality or reputation.
Rather, the shortage of skilled workers is wreaking havoc in the industry and ensuring that numerous positions remain unfilled.
A recently published statistic by the personnel service provider Hays and the Berlin-based Index Group shows that the number of job advertisements in many engineering professions has been declining throughout Germany since the beginning of the year.
Compared to the previous year, however, there are still significantly more engineering positions open, explains Ingo Rauhut, labor market expert at the Association of German Engineers (VDI).
This means that engineers are not only among the most sought-after employees in Germany, but also among the top earners.Find out here what salary you can expect as an industrial engineer.
What is the starting salary as an industrial engineer?
According to a salary study by the technology portal “ingenieur.de”, for which more than 4,000 engineers in Germany were surveyed last year, the median starting salary per year for graduated industrial engineers is 49,992 euros gross (4,166 euros per month).
The main factor influencing the starting salary in engineering is the academic degree that an applicant can demonstrate.
According to the study, engineers with a master’s degree earn an annual gross of 51,800 euros. This corresponds to a gross monthly salary of around 4,316 euros.
How much does an industrial engineer earn per month?
According to the Indeed job exchange, industrial engineers earn an average of around 57,173 euros gross per year, or 4,764 euros per month. Stepstone calculates gross monthly earnings of around 4,995 euros for industrial engineers.
For comparison:
Across the entire engineering sector, the average salary is around 5,360 euros gross per month. This is according to the Stepstone Salary Report 2022.
Where is the best place to earn as an industrial engineer?
Some factors have a direct impact on salary – from the employer to the federal state to the industry.
For example, if a company is bound by collective agreements, it pays higher salaries on average than companies that are not bound by collective agreements. This is shown by numerous analyses and studies.
Just last month, there was a breakthrough in collective bargaining for employees in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. As a result, wages and salaries will rise in two stages by a total of 6.5 percent.
The size of the company also has an impact on salary. Global players generally perform better in salary studies than start-ups or medium-sized companies