Not sure where your salary sits? The table below shows what a single employee takes home in Germany at 8 common salaries (calculated for Berlin, the calculator’s default state), using the same rules as the calculator above. A €30,000 salary leaves €21,181 a year, or €1,765 a month, which is 71% of the gross figure. At €150,000 the take-home share is 56%, or €7,055 a month.

Select a salary in the first column for its own page with the full breakdown, hourly and weekly pay. The last column shows the share of any extra pay you would keep after tax and contributions.

Two numbers describe your tax burden. The effective rate is the share of your whole salary that goes to tax and contributions. In Germany it rises from 29.4% to 43.6% across the salaries in the table above. The marginal rate is the share of your next unit of income that is taxed, and it is what matters when you consider a raise, overtime or a bonus.

The marginal rate is lowest around €30,000, where 42% of each extra amount goes to tax, and highest around €100,000, where it reaches 53%. Between those points the rate is not always a smooth climb, because allowances, credits and caps on social contributions switch on and off at different incomes.

A practical example: a 10% raise on €50,000 adds €5,000 to your gross pay but €2,626 to your take-home pay a year, so 53% of the raise reaches your account. Use the calculator and enter a bonus or overtime to see the same effect for your own numbers.

To see how the calculation works, here is a €50,000 salary for a single employee (calculated for Berlin, the calculator’s default state). The average full-time wage is €54,840, so this is a typical figure. The result is €32,244 a year, €2,687 a month or about €15.50 an hour on a 40-hour week.

The largest deduction is Income Tax, at €6,881 or 13.8% of gross pay. Taken together, tax and contributions amount to 35.5% of the salary. Put another way, you work from 1 January until about 10 May each year just to cover them, and about 14 of every 40 hours you work. Credits, where they apply, show as a plus sign because they reduce the tax you owe.

Job offers are quoted per year but bills arrive monthly, so it helps to see the same salary per period. The figures below divide the €50,000 example by 12 months, 26 two-week periods, 52 weeks, 260 working days and 2,080 working hours (a 40-hour week). Your own pay schedule, hours and holidays can differ, and you can change them under More Options in the calculator.

How much of a typical paycheque survives tax in Germany? The table applies the calculator to benchmark salaries from official statistics (the sources are listed in the “Do You Earn a Good Salary?” chart above). A full-time worker on the minimum wage keeps 71% of gross pay, while the average earner keeps 63%.

Single employee, Berlin, standard settings, tax year 2026.

Only slightly. On the same €50,000 salary, take-home pay runs from €32,072 in Saxony to €32,244 in Baden-Württemberg, a gap of €172 a year (€14 a month). The middle of the range is Lower Saxony at €32,244. The state you choose changes the regional or local taxes and contributions added to the national system, so use the state selector next to the salary box to see your own place. The section “Your Net Pay Across All States” above compares every state for the exact salary you enter.

In Germany, salaries are normally quoted as gross annual or monthly amounts and paid monthly. Your employer withholds wage tax (Lohnsteuer) according to your tax class and sends your social insurance contributions to the relevant funds, and you receive what is left. Your employer pays roughly the same amount in social insurance on top of your gross salary, which is not shown on your payslip.

Pick your state, tax class, health insurance type and whether you pay church tax in the options.

Wage tax

Calculated with the official payroll algorithm of the Federal Ministry of Finance for 2026, which applies progressive rates from 14% to 45%, the basic allowance and allowances for the tax class you select.

Pension and unemployment insurance

Pension 9.3% and unemployment 1.3% of gross pay, up to an annual ceiling of €101,400.

Health and care insurance

Health insurance 7.3% plus half of your fund’s additional contribution (average 2.9% in total), and care insurance 1.8% (higher if you are childless and 23 or older), up to a ceiling of €69,750.

Church tax and solidarity surcharge

Church members pay 8% or 9% of their income tax depending on the state. The solidarity surcharge applies only to higher incomes.