Berlin is famous for a few things: clubs, doner kebabs, startups, tourists, and poor customer service. It's an ever-changing city (and my home) that attracts a huge number of tech enthusiasts.
A recent survey by the author of the weekly tech newsletter, Handpicked Berlin offers an insight into what people are earning right now in the city’s tech ecosystem.
With 1,845 valid submissions, the 3rd annual salary survey for the tech and startup sectors. This year's report reveals a concerning trend: median salaries have stagnated at €75,000 while the gender pay gap has significantly widened.
Before we dig into the findings, let’s just get some demographics:
Gender: Out of 1845 total respondents this year, 996 (53.98 per cent) identify as male, 820 (44.44 per cent) as female, 15 as non-binary respondents (0.81 per cent), and 14 preferred not to say (0.76 per cent).
Education: The Berlin tech scene remains highly educated, with nearly 94 per cent of professionals holding at least a Bachelor's degree. Master's degrees are most common (49.3 per cent), followed by Bachelor's (36.9 per cent).
Career stage: Most tech professionals in Berlin are mid-career, with over 60 per cent having 6–15 years of experience. Large corporations (1000+ employees) employ the largest share (35 per cent), while smaller startups (1–10 employees) are underrepresented, despite Berlin’s active early-stage scene.
Yeah, surprise, surprise most people don’t work at startups
While Berlin prides itself on its reputation as a startup haven, in reality only 29.26 per cent (539 respondents) work at startups this year, compared to 36.47 per cent (419 respondents) last year—a decrease of 7.21 per cent — perhaps team members were too busy hustling to fill in the survey?
Meanwhile, the vast majority (66.4 per cent, 1223 respondents) are employed at established companies, up from 60.31 per cent (693 respondents).
In terms of salary progression, the most substantial salary jumps occur when moving from micro-companies to small businesses, with a 25 per cent increase between the 1-10 and 11-50 employee brackets.
How large is the gender pay gap?
The gender pay gap has increased compared to last year, now standing at over 20 per cent across all respondents (vs 15 per cent last year). It probably also has to do with more women participating this year.
In median terms, women earned 20.48 per cent (€66,000) or €17,000 less than men (€83,000). The situation was worse for non-binary respondents (25.30 per cent less, €62,000).
For women in leadership positions, the gap has widened significantly. Female leaders make up 40.28 per cent of leadership respondents, they earned a median of €75,500 compared to €100,000 for male leaders – a difference of €24,500 or 24.5 per cent (vs 14.46 per cent last year).
In the group of individual contributors, the gap was €13,250 or 16.99 per cent (€64,750 for women vs €78,000 for men).
This growing disparity suggests that despite increased awareness of gender inequality in compensation, the tech and startup sectors in Berlin are experiencing a concerning trend in the wrong direction. It’s fair to say that equal quality work should mean equal pay.
Even when controlling for both experience level and role, a significant gender pay gap persists among full-time employees. Based on a subset of 1,700 respondents, the data shows that men consistently earn more than women across nearly all roles and experience brackets, with the average adjusted pay gap at -14.9 per cent.
The gap is especially pronounced in mid-career positions such as managers and individual contributors, where differences range from -15 per cent to over -22 per cent. While younger employees show slightly smaller disparities (around -10 per cent), the gap widens with more experience, reaching -26 per cent for those with 16–20 years on the job.
Notably, the only group where women out-earn men is among very early-career team leads. These findings suggest that factors beyond role or experience—such as negotiation practices, unconscious bias, or structural inequalities—may contribute to ongoing pay disparities.
The migrant experience
In reality, the data reflects Berlin’s international tech ecosystem, with German passport holders accounting for 15.6 per cent of respondents (versus approximately 75 per cent of Berlin’s general population). This provides excellent insights for international professionals but may not fully represent local German compensation patterns.
Further, the majority of respondents function with intermediate or basic German proficiency — it's not easy to learn Deutsch when you work full time, and Germany could increase its attractiveness to skilled migrants by including administrative services in languages besides English.
Yet contrary to common assumptions, fluency in German does not correlate with higher salaries in the tech sector. In fact, those with advanced German skills (C1 level) report the lowest average and median salaries—€68,611 and €67,250, respectively.
Meanwhile, professionals with little or no German proficiency tend to earn more, with average salaries above €80,000. This pattern suggests that international specialists, particularly those with in-demand technical skills, may command premium pay regardless of language ability. It may also reflect a talent gap in the local German-speaking workforce, prompting companies to offer higher salaries to attract non-German-speaking experts.
Curiously, German citizens earned €7,000 less than their non-EU counterparts, and other EU citizens earned €8,000 less. This continues a pattern of previous years, where international talent from outside the EU gets a premium compensation in Berlin’s ecosystem.
However, as Berlin competes globally for tech talent in response to the ever-present skills gap issues of talent retention and workplace equity that could impact the city's position as Europe's leading tech hub.
What jobs pay the most and least in Berlin?
This year's expanded role categorization reveals significant salary disparities across job titles. The highest-paying roles are in:
- Software Engineering Leadership (€115,995 average),
- SRE & Infrastructure (€112,000), and
- Executives (€107,722), reflecting the premium on technical leadership and strategic roles.
On the other end, the lowest-paying roles include:
- Executive Assistance & Administration (€40,750),
- Accounting (€44,000, though based on a single respondent),
- Architectural Design (€45,750).
- Roles in Web Development, Graphic Design, and Content & Creative Marketing also fall on the lower end of the salary scale.
Industries with the highest salaries:
Looking at average startup employees reported a higher average salary (€80,424.86) compared with established companies (€78,041.29)—a small 3 per cent advantage for startups.
A lot of people will leave their jobs
Nearly one-third of respondents (30.82 per cent or 567 people) indicated they are likely or very likely to change jobs in 2025.
It’s unclear whether this includes people who suspect their role may be eradicated but at the very least suggests companies need to work on their employee retention policies. Further, an overwhelming majority of respondents (67.8 per cent) received neither payment nor flex-time for extra hours worked which shows the need for room for improvement
Bonus and equity structures vary notably by company size.
- Mid-sized companies (201–500 employees) offer the most generous bonuses, with the highest average (€20,135) and a median of €10,000.
- Large enterprises (1000+) provide the most consistent access to bonuses (32.6 per cent of employees), though at a slightly lower median of €8,000.
When it comes to equity, very small companies (1–10 employees) offer the highest average value (€56,136), likely to offset lower salaries, but access is limited (11.3 per cent). Large enterprises strike the best balance, offering both broad access (30.9 per cent) and solid equity value (median €20,000). Mid-sized firms remain a sweet spot, offering top-tier bonuses and decent equity without startup-level risk.
Lead image: Cate Lawrence.
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