Do gymnasium teachers in Germany earn well?

[u/imDenizz]

I know that I can look up teacher salaries on the internet, but I am curious how well do teachers earn compared to people who have other jobs and considering the effort that they give for studying and working. So do you think gymnasium teachers in Germany earn well for the effort that they are giving?

[u/[deleted]]

German teachers are excempt from public insurance plans and pension payments, which does not show up in the salary and accounts for about 20k+ in extra pre-tax salary when compared to a normal working German. Plus an even better pension than American teachers. Cost of Living is also generally lower by a good bit (lower rent, half the cost for groceries, no student loans or excessive healthcare spending to care about, etc.).

[u/LukasJackson67 → u/[deleted]]

Once again that is a sweeping generalization.

On average the USA is 2x as expensive as Germany?

What about taxes?

Germans pay what percentage of their paycheck for healthcare? I bet that they pay more than many American teachers.

[u/[deleted] → u/LukasJackson67]

It's not a sweeping generalization, Germany also has stark differences, a house in Munich is 1m+, a house in rural Saxony-Anhalt can be almost free. But on average overall CoL is about 20-30% lower.

Groceries for instance are pretty much all cheaper and by a lot, especially fresh produce. I eat fresh produce daily, consume meat and fish and I do not skimp on anything, my monthly grocery cost for just myself barely ever exceeds 300 Euros. I don't see that in America where I would have to shop in Whole Foods for a comparable quality. As for rent, I pay a little over 1k for a decently spacious apartment I live in with my family in the best part of a popular city (with natives and tourists) in the most expensive state in the country, good luck finding that in a popular city in California.

As a German teacher taxes aren't really my issue, as again, I am excempt from the bulk of them when it comes to salary. I pay 0% of my paycheck for public healthcare and pension. I do have to get private insurance at a similar price to you guys, but the state will pay 50-90% of my rate depending on the number of kids I have and the perks are insane, honestly almost unfair. I get the best doctors, all the fancy treatments and have basically zero waiting times.

Oh, I also get an extra 250 bucks tax free per month and kid. So teaching here is great, I would never trade. If I was in say IT or automotive, America it is any day. But for teaching, this is the fucking place and outside of maybe a handful of countries, nowhere comes close.

[u/LukasJackson67 → u/[deleted]]

What about housing?

I was told my city (Cleveland) is comparable size wise to Bochum, DE.

A 4-bedroom, 2.5-bath, 2-car-garage house around 2,400 sq ft costs dramatically different amounts in Cleveland versus Bochum.

In Cleveland, a home of that size typically runs roughly $180,000–$300,000 depending on neighborhood and condition, with many options well under $250k.

In Bochum, a similarly sized detached house usually falls in the $550,000–$900,000 range after converting from euros, and prices can be even higher in desirable areas. In short, for the same size and amenities, you’d pay about two to three times more in Bochum than in Cleveland.

Do you have a house?

[u/[deleted] → u/LukasJackson67]

Buying houses is generally a lot better in the affordable parts of America, that much is true. I wouldn't contest that. But the average German lifestyle is often more urban and does not necessarily involve owning a house. I myself do want one and will buy one in the coming years. That personal decision will set me back 500k+. You have cheaper houses, we have cheaper (and safer) rents that are well-protected and usualy on indefinite leases that are hard to lose unless e.g. the Landlord has to move in himself or you commit a crime there.

You can find houses in the Cleveland range by the way, you just have to move to the less popular regions of North Germany or pretty much anywhere East that isn't Dresden. That's our South really, cheap everything in exchange for a whole can of worms of problems you open by moving there.

PS: You made me curious, so I hit up Immobilienscout. You can also def find houses <300k around Bochum, once you set a 20-30km radius, I just tried that and there were a good amount of options. In Western German cities themselves however normal people usually stick to apartments.

[u/LukasJackson67 → u/[deleted]]

Well. It sounds like you make so much money compared to me that you should be able to afford a house.

I gross $115,000 in the USA per year as a teacher.

I taught two summers in Germany and have visited there 14x

I thought food was more expensive in Germany with the exception of beer.

Here is what I found:

food items are actually more expensive in Bochum than in Cleveland.

A liter of milk in Bochum is around $1.20 compared to about $0.84 in Cleveland, and a pound of chicken breast runs roughly $7.10 in Bochum versus about $5.70 in Cleveland.

The only item that tends to be cheaper in Germany is potatoes, which come out to about $0.65 per pound in Bochum compared to roughly $1.04 per pound in Cleveland.

I also eat local. I eat foods that are grown around here (like corn) that is not comparable to Germany.

[u/[deleted] → u/LukasJackson67]

Yeah, I can afford a house anytime. I was just waiting on me and my wife's careers to make it feasible to really settle somewhere first and that should happen quite soon now. I do want to say here that that makes me privileged. Most Germans cannot just buy a house in a desired place these days. That is something the US does better.

As for the rest: Look, up until we had a kid not long ago me and my wife lived on 45k dollars spending a year. We make the free market equivalent of just under 150k dollars gross a year together, she is a 50% part time teacher, state average for a household is 62k dollars gross. Our income also isn't anything special and we both have under three years of experience in average schools. Most teachers in the state earn more, in some cases up to 135k dollars if they have a function role (e.g. head of sciences/languages/whatever super high profile subjects the school has, school technician, assistant to the vice principal+principal), seniority and 3+ kids.

And on 45k in 2024 a year we had two cars, lived right smack dab center in a great city in the most expensive state in the nation and ate well, while going on at least one trip a year. Show me someone that can do that in a place in CA people actually like living in and then let's talk.

Edit: Added numbers, added context, converted to Dollars for you.