A new survey by Handpicked Berlin has found that advanced German skills may not be necessary for job seekers looking for high-paid tech positions in the capital.
A survey of 1.845 Berlin tech employees has found that speaking advanced German does not necessarily result in earning more money in the capital’s tech industry.
The survey found that tech employees in Berlin with no German language skills or only informal, basic German skills have the highest average salary in their industry, 83.072 euros per year. Those with A1 German skills earned an average of 82.552 euros, compared to A2, 80.884 euros per year.
B1-level speakers earned slightly more, 81.794 euros per year, before the average fell again at B2 level, to 74.128. Perhaps most surprisingly, advanced German speakers working in the Berlin tech industry earn the least, with C1 speakers earning an average of 68.661 euros annually, while C2 or native speakers earn 76.323 euros annually.
But all of this isn’t permission to stop revising your adjective endings. The survey pointed out that tech workers with no to little German skills are likely the highest earners because Berlin companies have difficulty finding local job seekers with the expertise they are looking for.
For example, if a company needs a cybersecurity specialist, one of the most in-demand positions amid Germany’s record-high worker shortage, they are likely to prioritise hiring experts from overseas rather than hiring someone less qualified but who lives in Germany and therefore is more likely to have intermediate, advanced or native-level German skills.
When it comes to the question of whether Berlin tech employees with German citizenship earn more, the study found similarly surprising results. Employees with dual EU and non-EU passports had the highest average annual income (80.658 euros and 81.325 euros respectively), followed by non-EU citizens (80.658), Germans (76.310) and other EU nationals (75.109).
Another factor at play here is likely the salary or employment requirements tied to certain visas or residence permits, which means German and EU citizens are freer to take low-paid or part-time work.
According to the German Society for Career Counselling (DGfK), the highest number of jobs available where no German is required are in IT, life sciences and academia. For those working in other sectors, learning the language is well worth it.
A 2024 report by the job platform Indeed found that, of the millions of Germany-based job listings posted between September 2023 and August 2024, just 2,7 percent of advertisements said that German was not required for the job.
Of the jobs where German was not a requirement, nine out of 10 listings were for underpaid positions, such as cleaning services, beauty, retail, hospitality, farming and security services. A 2019 study by the Institute for Economic Research (IW) in Cologne also found that the better their German skills, the more migrant workers earned.
All this said, learning German is not just important for finding work with a comfortable salary, but further understanding the politics and society that shape your daily life in your adopted home country.
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