Salary information for career starters

collective agreement of the chemical industry

The official annual salaries for academic technical and scientific employees in the chemical industry are negotiated by the Association of Employed Academics and Senior Executives in the Chemical Industry (VAA) and the Federal Employers' Association of the Chemical Industry (BAVC). In November 2024, the minimum annual salaries for the second year of employment were redefined:

2024:

for employees with a diploma/master's degree: 74,050 euros;
for employees with a doctorate: 86,075 euros.

As before, the salary for the first year of employment can be freely agreed between the employer and the employee. It is usually lower than the amount for the second year of employment. Technical and scientific employees with a master's degree are generally classified as graduate employees.

note

It should be noted that many companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, that employ chemists are not represented in the Federal Chemical Employers' Association and are therefore not bound by its rates. Salaries are usually lower there. This is also the case in most companies outside the chemical industry.

There are no tariffs for experienced chemists. Performance and success determine the 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".