Salary in Germany

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Caligari
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue May 04, 2021 10:41 am

Salary in Germany

Post by Caligari » Fri May 21, 2021 3:36 pm

Hello everyone,
Is there someone who had/has a MC IF in Germany (preferably in Bavaria) ? I am asking because in my case almost 50% of the gross salary + mobility is taxed. The resulting net salary is good, but lower than I expected. I have read on this forum about somebody in Italy having 3500 euros which is way above my salary.
I would be interested in a payslip or some sort of document which lists the gross income and the various taxes (of course, anonymized). I ready to offer all the information regarding my salary - though I don't have a payslip yet.

Regards

wait_for_w8...
Posts: 26
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:44 pm

Re: Salary in Germany

Post by wait_for_w8... » Sun Jun 06, 2021 1:29 pm

Caligari wrote:
Fri May 21, 2021 3:36 pm
Hello everyone,
Is there someone who had/has a MC IF in Germany (preferably in Bavaria) ? I am asking because in my case almost 50% of the gross salary + mobility is taxed. The resulting net salary is good, but lower than I expected. I have read on this forum about somebody in Italy having 3500 euros which is way above my salary.
I would be interested in a payslip or some sort of document which lists the gross income and the various taxes (of course, anonymized). I ready to offer all the information regarding my salary - though I don't have a payslip yet.

Regards
50% is ridiculous amount - I would speak to financial department. Milionairs dont pay that - I think the top of the tax bracket is 45%. Even if you use online tax calculator you should be taxed ~40 % (including all social security bullshit). Also if you earn above 64k euro (or something like that) you can enroll into private health insurance and avoid that hellhole of state health insurance that is a complete rip off for young people. Pension is unavoidable as far as I know.

basanite
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2021 4:45 pm
Location: Paris

Re: Salary in Germany

Post by basanite » Mon Jun 07, 2021 5:12 pm

Unfortunately, this seems to fit.
Taxation and insurances in Germany are relatively expensive compared to other countries and the allowances listed in your proposal are supposed to cover the entire costs also those of the employer.
The sum of your allowances (living+mobility+family?) is like a employer gross. You can subtract about 20% (estimated) to cover the employers costs for health insurance, and other welfare contributions.
The remaining is your gross salary as it should appear on the payslip as "gross".
Now taxation (something between 30% and 40%, depending on your experience tier), and the employee contribution to health insurance, unemployment insurance and some other contributions are subtracted.
This usually leaves you something between 2500 and 3000 € on your bank account.

It looks awful on the first glance, but e.g. health insurance is fully covered and if you are EU citizen or your visa allows it, you would get 60% of the salary as unemployment payment for 1 year after the contract.
It is also in relatively good agreement with the salary of an experienced "regular" Postdoc in Germany. However, if you go to Munich you might need to cover really high rents...

I used to work as a Postdoc in Germany (NW) and had to help several MSCA fellows with their administration stuff.
Therefore, another comment: Make sure that the HR office (Personalservice) notes the correct taxation group (Steuerklasse) for you. Do not accept Steuerklasse 6! The correct would be Steuerklasse 1 (or 4, if you are married and your partner works in Germany, too). Not 6! ;)
Cheers

archaeoem
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2021 9:38 pm

Re: Salary in Germany

Post by archaeoem » Mon Aug 30, 2021 9:55 pm

Hello, I would be interested in any further info on this.

I've held my MSCA in Bavaria for the past two and a bit months: I only received a payslip for the first partial month so the amounts were all random and I can't use it to calculate my salary for a full month. Apparently, I won't receive another payslip unless my salary scale changes (?!). On the subsequent two months, I've received different amounts, neither of which seemed to exactly align with what I was expecting based on the MSCA guidelines - first €3050 (yay!) but now €2750 (boo). My contract listed a random gross salary amount, well less than what is listed by the EU Commission, but I was told that this amount was already less various employer contributions: however, they are not itemised and this amount doesn't seem to line up with the online calculators.

Thanks for any advice/info!!

EDIT: I've done some more digging, and my monthly take home will be about €2750, which indicates a total "tax" rate (incl. health insurance but less church tax) of just about 50%. Essentially, all of the employee & employer contributions are taken from the EU monthly living allowance, and the additional c. €20k from the EU for overheads go towards other costs, I guess. I think different universities/countries might be more generous in how they use that overhead?
Overall, this salary is about €100 more than what I received on a fellowship in the UK (certainly not what I thought based on how generous the MSCA scheme is always said to be). But the unemployment insurance, etc., in Germany is very good, so I guess that's comforting...

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