GDCh members can find further information on starting salaries at MyGDCh. You can access the members-only area by entering your membership number and password in the top left corner of this page. Starting salaries can be found under "Special Offers" and then "Salaries".
In the GDCh graduate brochure "Career entry in chemistry" you will find, in addition to overview articles on the topics of working life, career entry and future, the chapter on money with information on starting salaries for chemistry graduates as well as scholarships and research funding for young scientists.
The following graphic and the further information on this page provide a rough overview of the starting salaries of chemists in the Chemists in Civil Service, both within and outside the chemical industry.
It should be noted that this graphic serves as a guide. The first bar can be seen as the "minimum" and the last bar as the absolute maximum.
Only if all conditions are met and the fit between one's own qualifications and the job posting is optimal should the maximum value be stated as the salary expectation.
The official annual salaries for academic, technical, and scientific employees in the chemical industry are negotiated by the Association of Salaried Academics and Managers in the Chemical Industry (VAA) and the Federal Employers' Association for the Chemical Industry (BAVC). It was decided that the minimum annual salaries for the second year of employment would remain unchanged for October 2025. This means the following for 2025:
2025 and 2026:
For employees with a diploma/master's degree: 74,050 euros;
For employees with a doctorate: 86,075 euros.
For the first year of employment, salaries can still be freely negotiated between employer and employee. They tend to be lower than those for the second year. Technical and scientific employees with a master's degree are generally classified like graduate employees.
note
It should be noted that many companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), that employ chemists are not members of the German Chemical Industry Employers' Association (BCI) and are therefore not bound by its collective bargaining agreements. Salaries there are usually lower. This is also the case in most companies outside the chemical industry.
There are no fixed pay scales for experienced chemists. Performance and success determine the salary classification.
In the public sector, graduates with a university degree are usually classified according to the relevant TVöD or TVL tariffs.
The corresponding pay groups are regulated in the respective collective agreements.
Each salary group is divided into six levels (1-2 basic levels, 3-6 development levels). Through professional experience with the same employer, you can move up to the next higher level after a specified period of time. Salary groups 13 – 15 are reserved for employees with a university degree/master’s degree. A promotion does not lead to a classification in a higher tariff group.
HAW graduates (formerly FH) and chemistry bachelors are grouped in E9 to E12. Entry-level positions with a higher degree of responsibility (personnel responsibility/budget responsibility) are remunerated with salary group 14.
You can usually find out which collective agreement is binding and which salary group is intended for the position from the job advertisement. The collective agreements and the corresponding pay groups (classification) as well as collective pay agreements (amount of salary in the respective group) are publicly available on the Internet.
For the first time, the AG Junge food chemistry has conducted a salary survey on starting salaries for food chemists.
For starting a career as a food chemist, the gross annual salary ranged from 40,000 to 45,000 euros.
All evaluations and further information on the survey can be found in the "MyGDCh" area under "Salaries for chemists".
| country | information |
|---|---|
|
Austria |
Since 2012, information about salary must be included in the job advertisement |
|
Switzerland |
Swiss Federal Statistical Office |
|
USA |
American Chemical Society |
| other countries | If you have questions about salaries for experienced professionals abroad, the chemical societies of the respective country may be able to provide information |
For chemical professionals with vocational training, salaries in the chemical industry are regulated by the collective bargaining agreements of the respective federal states. These agreements are negotiated by the representatives of the companies (BAVC; German Chemical Industry Employers' Association) and the employees' representatives (IG BCE; Industrial Union for Mining, Chemicals and Energy).
The classification is based on pay grades, similar to the public sector. The collective bargaining agreements with the respective regulated incomes for the corresponding group are freely available online, just as they are for the public sector.
In the GDCh graduate brochures " Career prospects in chemistry " (explicitly for skilled workers with a vocational training background) and " Career entry in chemistry " you will find, in addition to useful information on career entry and experience reports from career starters, detailed overview articles on the topic of salary.
A list of pay grades in the chemical industry can be found below:
| pay grade | Explanation |
|---|---|
|
E6 |
Requirements: 3-year completed vocational training or employees who demonstrate comparable skills through a corresponding number of years of practical experience, e.g., chemical production technician, pharmaceutical production technician. |
|
E7 |
This is awarded to employees who possess skills exceeding those of E6 (completed training requiring a higher level of abstraction in the learning content) and whose work is carried out according to instructions, e.g., chemical laboratory assistants. Examples: performing routine analyses, experimental procedures, or preparative work according to standard company methods. |
|
E8 |
E7 qualification plus regularly demanding tasks performed independently. Furthermore, specialized knowledge acquired through additional in-house training is required to perform these tasks. This usually precedes a longer period of employment at an E7 level. Examples include: complex instrument controls for spectrometers or gas chromatographs, or working with multi-stage preparations. |
|
E9 |
E8 plus higher-level commercial or technical activities that are carried out according to instructions and that either require completed job-related training and vocational training or for those who have acquired additional job-specific expertise. Examples: revising/creating procedural instructions, optimization work related to production-related activities, administrative tasks |
|
E10 |
The position requires highly skilled technical tasks that can be performed independently according to general instructions. Vocational training with additional qualifications as a chemical technician or equivalent is necessary. Examples include: optimizing or developing new testing procedures or methods, production support, and monitoring workflows in the pilot plant, coupled with specialized knowledge in analysis or synthesis. |
|
E11 |
Employees with a successful university entrance qualification, e.g., engineers or laboratory technicians, with technically demanding tasks who also have personnel responsibility and/or responsibility for cost centers and budgets. |
The following graphic provides a rough overview of the starting salaries (monthly salaries) of chemical specialists with vocational training in the public sector and the chemical industry. A survey by the Hans Böckler Foundation at lohnspiegel.de offers further information.
* excluding pro-rata annual special payment
**Each federal state with the highest and lowest tariff
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last modified: 07.08.2026 08:52 H from A.Miller
