Welcome to the most comprehensive overview of salaries in Berlin. Our annual survey provides transparent insights into compensation trends across Berlin’s tech and startup ecosystem. It helps both professionals and companies make better decisions about salaries, careers, and hiring in Berlin.
We collect anonymised salary data from professionals across various roles - from software engineers and product managers to HR specialists and marketers.
Our mission is simple: bring more transparency to Berlin’s job market.
Latest from the Berlin Salary Trends
We are running the 2026 Survey!!!
More salary-related content
Salary Trends in the media
2025
- tech.eu, Berlin tech salaries stagnate as gender pay gap widens — now over 20 per cent
- Sifted, Berlin tech salaries stagnate, gender pay gap widens
- IamExpat, Do you need to speak German to get a high-paid tech job in Berlin?
2024
- Sifted, Berlin tech salaries are up in 2024, but women still earn 15% less than men
- 20 Percent Berlin, #274: Self-ID law, pro-Palestinian conference, Tesla job cuts
- Medianet Berlin: Berlin Salary Trends 2024: Umfrage zeigt drastischen Gender Pay Gap
- Reddit: thread on r/cscareerquestionsEU
- Wallstreet Online, Ein Überblick über die Gehaltsentwicklung in der Tech-Branche
2023
- Reddit - r/berlin release thread
- 20percent.berlin - #196: Pool IDs, Tesla expanding, Social workers
- Tech.eu - A survey of Berlin’s thriving tech scene sheds light on average salaries
Scope of the surveys
Everyone working in companies or roles related to tech and startups. For example:
By company type:
- Startups, early-stage to mature.
- Tech companies focused on tech products or services.
- Non-tech companies in traditional industries (e.g., manufacturing, finance, healthcare) with significant tech departments or roles.
By example roles (not a complete list!):
- Technology & Development: Software Engineers, Web Developers, Full Stack Developers, DevOps Engineers, Product Managers, Information Security specialists, System Architects, Cloud people (hehe) and similar.
- Data, Analytics & Finance: Data Scientists, ML Engineers, Data Analysts, Business Intelligence Analysts, Financial Analysts, Controllers, Accountants, Data Engineers and similar.
- Marketing & Communications: Digital Marketers, SEO Specialists, Content Managers, Social Media Specialists, Copywriters, Public Relations Managers, Marketing Automation specialists, Brand strategists and similar.
- Design & UX/UI: Graphic Designers, UX/UI Designers, Web Designers, Creative Directors, Art Directors, User Researchers, Interaction Designers and similar.
- Sales, Customer Success & Operations: Supply Chain/Logistics Managers, Sales Representatives, Product Operations, Account Managers, Customer Success Specialists, Operations Managers, Business Development Managers and similar.
- Business, Strategy & Legal Services: Risk Managers, Consultants, Business Analysts, Project Managers, Management Consultants, Strategy Analysts, Compliance Officers, Legal Professionals and similar.
- Human Resources & Recruitment: HR Managers, Recruiters, Talent Acquisition Specialists, HR Analysts, Diversity and Inclusion Officers, Employee Engagement Specialists, Learning and Development Specialists, Office Managers and similar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why an anonymous survey?
Discussing money is taboo. How many times did you tell your colleague about how much you earn? Yes, probably never. We, the employees, have platforms like Kununu, Glassdoor, and Levels.fyi that provide salary information, but the data is noisy, inconsistent and inaccurate.
On the other hand, employers often have access to robust benchmarking services that give them good visibility into market metrics such as the number of applications per position, expected salary levels, and more. Regarding salary negotiation, this clearly tilts the balance in favour of employers.
This anonymous survey will not magically level this playing field, but it will provide a platform for the honest sharing of salary information. Hopefully, it will help you see how you compare to others and see where you stand. Numbers matter in every sense; the higher the number of submissions, the lower the noise.
What are the goals and the benefits?
We collect and analyze salary data regularly to help you benchmark your compensation, enhance workplace transparency, identify industry gaps, and guide employers in improving their compensation practices.
How often is the survey done?
It’s an annual survey.
How can you help and get involved?
You can help by participating, spreading the word or volunteering.
How did the survey start?
The idea originated in issue #41 of a newsletter Handpicked Berlin. A poll “Would you participate in an anonymous salary survey for Berlin 2023?” had an excellent response rate (83% yes with 310 votes). The team changed over the years: check survey pages for details.
Where will the results be published?
An analysis/report will be published at handpickedberlin.com
Who designed the survey?
The survey is based on similar surveys with brevity in mind. It is also inspired by the European Social Survey and Destatis (Federal Statistical Office of Germany) and has received small updates each year.
License & Using Survey Data
The survey and the results are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA), which means you are free to use and share the data for non-commercial purposes. Non-commercial use does not include usage on monetized websites, blogs, etc., that can indirectly generate revenue or drive traffic due to the exposure of this data. To use and share the data, you must provide attribution to the original source, and any new works based on the data must also be licensed under the same terms. This license allows the data to be freely used and shared while still providing protection against commercial exploitation.
If you have any questions about how you can use the data or need to clarify whether your intended use is commercial or non-commercial, please refer to the CC BY-NC-SA license or contact the team for more information. In case of doubts, please ask.
Data Privacy and Confidentiality Disclaimer
Introduction
This policy outlines how we collect, store, use, and protect your data during this survey.
GDPR Compliance
As the private entity administrators of this survey, we operate under the assumption that we do not process personal data as per the GDPR definition, given the anonymous design of the survey. We make every effort to avoid any potential singling out of individuals. This includes grouping data points (for example job position titles) and removing any potentially identifiable information. Raw data will not be published anywhere. Any data that could lead to identification will be removed from the dataset. All questions have been designed to avoid collecting unnecessary or excessive data to focus on data minimization.
Anonymous Survey and Your Privacy
The survey is conducted anonymously. We do not collect any personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, addresses, email addresses, or IP addresses unless you voluntarily provide such information in free-form fields. These free-form entries will be removed. Individual responses won’t be singled out; the results would only be shared for research and other non-commercial purposes in a “clean format”, ensuring that no singling out would be possible.
“Clean format” means ensuring that “Roles” are not too specific (e.g. “Prime minister of Germany/Bundeskanzler” would be removed or, if appropriate, changed to “Elected official” or “Politician”). Similar to other positions, “cleaning” means avoiding specifically named positions that could lead to people being identified in combination with other data points.
Tally and Data Privacy
We use Tally (tally.so) to collect survey responses. Tally is a GDPR-compliant form builder based in Belgium (EU). Tally does not use cookies to track respondents and does not collect IP addresses in survey responses by default. Your responses are stored on Tally’s servers within the European Union.
For more information on how Tally handles data, you can review their privacy policy at https://tally.so/help/privacy-policy.
While Tally’s infrastructure is designed with privacy in mind, no online platform can guarantee absolute anonymity. We recommend avoiding sharing identifiable information in any free-form text fields.
Your Participation is Voluntary
Participation in this survey is entirely voluntary. You have the freedom not to answer certain questions or withdraw from the survey at any time. However, please avoid sharing sensitive information in free-form fields that you wouldn’t want publicly associated with your responses.
Data Usage
The data collected will be used to create a public report on salary trends in the cities of scope. This report will be openly available, supporting transparency in salary discussions. If you consent to participate in this survey, you agree to this use of the data.
Cleaned data might be shared for research or non-commercial purposes.
User Access and Correction of Data
Due to the anonymous nature of the survey, we cannot provide an option for participants to access or correct their data post-submission. We cannot identify your specific responses unless you voluntarily identified yourself in any of the free-form text fields. Please review your answers carefully before submitting, as we can’t facilitate modifications once the data is collected.
Data Storage and Retention
All the cleaned data collected from the survey responses is stored on Tally’s EU-based servers and in our internal analysis tools. This data could be shared under the license defined in the ‘License & Usage of Survey Data’ section. The collected data will be retained indefinitely for historical reference and to track salary trends over time.
Consent to Participate
By proceeding with the survey, you confirm your understanding of these details and voluntarily consent to participate under these conditions.
Contact
If you have any concerns or questions regarding this policy, contact the team.