The average gross hourly earnings show the income situation of employment relationships in different age groups, economic sectors and types of employment.
It contains no information about wage spreads within the mentioned groups. For example, individual gross hourly earnings may deviate significantly from the calculated average earnings within an industrial sector. The results presented take into account employment relationships that were not in part of education (for example vocational training, etcetera). The gross hourly earnings are considered here without extra payments.
Employees earn 24.59 euros per hour
Employees in Germany earned an average of € 24.59 per hour in April 2023. The wage level of € 20.97 in the New Länder was € 4.19 less and well below the average earnings in the Former territory of the Federal Republic (€ 25.16).
Marginally employed and temporary workers earned the least
Most employees with low earnings in 2023 were atypically employed. Atypical employment includes four forms of employment: part-time employment with up to 20 working hours per week, fixed-term employment, temporary work and so called marginal employment.
Atypical employees earned an average of € 19.39 gross per hour. For employees in standard employment, gross hourly earnings were much higher at € 25.89. A standard employment relationship is permanent, with more than 20 working hours a week, which is not exercised as a marginal job and not as a temporary work. Decisive for these differences in gross hourly earnings are qualification requirements, additionally to the forms of employment. In marginal employment, these requirements are usually relatively low. With an average of € 13.52 this group therefore had the lowest gross hourly earnings of atypical employees, followed by part-time employees with up to 20 working hours per week with an average of € 18.77. Fixed-term employees and temporary employees had the highest gross hourly earnings of atypical employees at € 19.42.
| Specification | Total | Women | Men | Former territory of the Federal Republic including Berlin | New Länder |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source: Earnings Survey, April 2023. | |||||
| Gross hourly earnings (wihout bonus payment) | |||||
| Total | 24.59 | 22.16 | 26.40 | 25.16 | 20.97 |
| Persons in standard employment | 25.89 | 23.28 | 27.62 | 26.64 | 21.39 |
| Atypical employed persons | 19.39 | 18.76 | 20.12 | 19.54 | 18.18 |
| Part-time employees | 18.77 | 18.32 | 19.86 | 18.88 | 17.33 |
| Fixed term employees | 19.42 | 18.70 | 20.05 | 19.56 | 18.44 |
| Marginally employed persons | 13.52 | 13.52 | 13.53 | 13.54 | 13.27 |
| Temporary employees | 19.42 | 19.80 | 19.27 | 19.93 | 16.58 |
Information on the Indicator
Description or definition
Arithmetic mean of gross hourly earnings of persons in employment without bonus payments.
Source
Earnings Survey April 2023.
Information for interpretation
The calculation is based on employment relationships in all economic sectors (NACE – groups) in companies with at least one person employed paying social security contributions.
Only employment relationships were taken into account that were not part of education (for example vocational training, etcetera).