The following graphic and the additional information on this page provide a rough overview of the starting salaries for chemists in the public sector, within and outside the chemical industry.
It should be noted that this graphic is intended as a guide. The first bar can be regarded as the “minimum” and the last bar as the absolute maximum.
The maximum value should only be stated as a salary expectation if all requirements are met and there is an optimal match between your qualifications and the job advertisement.
The official annual salaries for academically qualified 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 German Chemical Employers’ Association (BAVC). For October 2025, it was agreed that the minimum annual salaries for the second year of employment would remain unchanged. This means for 2025:
2025 and 2026:
for employees with a diploma/Master’s degree: €74,050;
for employees with a doctorate: €86,075.
For the first year of employment, salaries can continue to be freely agreed between the employer and the employee. They tend to be below the amount for the second year of employment. Technical and scientific employees with a Master’s degree are generally classified in the same category as employees with a diploma.
Note
Please note that many companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises employing chemists, are not represented in the German Chemical Employers’ Association and are therefore not bound by its collective agreements. Salaries there are generally lower. This is also the case in most companies outside the chemical industry.
No collective agreements apply to experienced chemists. Classification is determined by performance and success.
In the public sector, graduates with a completed university education are generally classified according to the relevant TVöD or TV-L pay scales.
The corresponding pay groups are regulated in the respective collective agreements.
Each pay group is divided into six steps (1–2 basic steps, 3–6 development steps). Through professional experience with the same employer, employees can advance to the next higher step after a specified period. The pay groups 13–15 are reserved for employees with a university degree in a scientific subject/master’s degree. A doctorate does not result in classification in a higher pay group.
Graduates of universities of applied sciences (formerly Fachhochschulen, FH) and Chemistry bachelor’s graduates are classified in E9 to E12. Entry-level positions with a higher level of responsibility (responsibility for staff/budgets) are remunerated at pay group 14.
The collective agreement that is binding and the pay group designated for the position can usually be found in the job advertisement. The collective agreements and the corresponding pay groups (classification), as well as collective pay agreements (salary level in the respective group), are publicly available online.
The AG Junge Lebensmittelchemie has conducted a salary survey on starting salaries for food chemists for the fourth time.
The average starting salary for food chemists was €47,952 (arithmetic mean).
GDCh members can access all analyses and further information about the survey in the logged-in area.
Country | Information |
| Austria | Since 2012, salary information has had to be included in the job advertisement. |
| Switzerland | Swiss Federal Statistical Office https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/arbeit-erwerb/loehne-erwerbseinkommen-arbeitskosten/lohnstruktur/salarium.html |
| USA | American Chemical Society separate reports for early-career and experienced professionals |
| Other countries | If you have questions about salaries for experienced professionals abroad, the chemical societies of the respective countries may be able to provide information. |
For chemistry professionals with vocational training backgrounds, salaries in the chemical industry are regulated by collective agreements for the respective federated states. These are negotiated by the representative of the companies (BAVC; German Chemical Employers’ Association) and the representative of the employees (IG BCE; Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union).
Employees are assigned to pay groups, similar to the public sector. As in the public sector, the collective pay agreements with the salaries stipulated for each group can be viewed freely online.
A list of the pay groups in the chemical industry can be found below:
| Pay group | Explanation |
|---|---|
E6 | Requires a completed three-year vocational training programme, or applies to employees who demonstrate comparable skills through an appropriate number of years of practical experience, e.g. chemical operators and pharmaceutical operators |
E7 | Employees with skills that exceed those required for E6 (completed training requiring a greater degree of abstraction in the learning content) and who carry out work according to instructions, e.g. chemical laboratory technicians. Example: carrying out routine analyses, experiments or preparative work using standard company methods |
E8 | E7 qualification plus regularly difficult tasks carried out independently. In addition, specific knowledge acquired through additional in-house training is required to perform these tasks. A longer period of employment in E7 usually precedes this. Example: complex equipment control, e.g. of spectrometers or gas chromatographs, or work involving multi-stage preparations |
E9 | E8 plus higher-value commercial or technical tasks carried out according to instructions and requiring either completed function-related vocational training and vocational training or additionally acquired specialist knowledge specific to the activity. Example: revising/creating process specifications, optimisation work relating to production-supporting activities, administrative tasks |
E10 | Requires high-level technical tasks carried out independently according to general instructions. Vocational training with an additional qualification as a chemical engineering technician or equivalent is necessary. Example: optimising or developing new testing procedures or methods, production support, monitoring workflows in the pilot plant, combined with particular specialist knowledge in analysis or synthesis |
E11 | Employees with a successfully completed qualification for university of applied sciences entrance, e.g. engineers or laboratory technicians, performing technically high-level tasks and additionally bearing personnel responsibility and/or responsibility for cost centres and budgets. |
The graphic below provides a general overview of the starting salaries (monthly salaries) of chemistry professionals with vocational training backgrounds in the public sector and in the chemical industry. Another option is a survey conducted by the Hans Böckler Foundation at lohnspiegel.de.
* excluding the pro rata annual special payment
** the federal state with the highest and lowest collective-agreement salary in each case
