Doctor salary in Germany.
What a doctor actually earns in Germany — resident to chief physician — in plain numbers. Gross, net, what drives it, and how it compares to a doctor's pay back home.
This is the number that changes lives, so let's be straight about it — no hype, just the real ranges. German doctor pay is set largely by collective agreements (Tarifverträge like TV-Ärzte), so it's unusually transparent and predictable. It rises in clear steps as you move from resident to specialist to senior doctor. The figures below are typical gross ranges; your exact pay depends on the agreement, the employer, the state, your experience, and your on-call load.
Salary by career stage (typical gross)
- Assistenzarzt (resident): starts around €5,500/month (~€66,000/year), rising each year of training toward ~€80,000 by the end.
- Facharzt (specialist): roughly €7,500–€9,000/month (~€90,000–€110,000+/year) once you finish residency.
- Oberarzt (senior doctor): roughly €9,000–€12,000/month (~€110,000–€150,000+/year).
- Chefarzt (chief physician): considerably more — often €200,000+/year, highly variable and partly negotiated.
On top of the base, on-call and overtime (Bereitschaftsdienst) add meaningfully to what you actually take home — often several hundred to a few thousand euros a month, depending on how much you do.
What affects your pay
- The collective agreement. University hospitals (TV-Ärzte/TdL), municipal hospitals (TV-Ärzte/VKA) and private groups each pay on their own scales.
- Your experience level within the scale — pay steps up each year.
- The state (Bundesland) and the specific employer.
- On-call and overtime — a big, real part of total income.
Gross vs net — the honest bit
Germany is a high-tax, high-service country, so your net (take-home) pay is well below gross — typically somewhere around 55–65% of gross, depending on your tax class, whether you're married, church tax, and deductions. In return you get strong healthcare, pension and unemployment cover built in. A resident's ~€5,500 gross lands as a very comfortable net for a single doctor, and better for a family on a favourable tax class.
How it compares to home
Here's why doctors make the move. For many from India or Pakistan, a first-year resident salary in Germany is more than a consultant earns back home — in the very first month. And unlike home, the specialty training is free and paid: no NEET-PG, no bond, no capitation fee. You're paid a European salary to specialise, not paying for the privilege. See how that fits the full pathway to working as a doctor in Germany.
It's not only the money
The salary is the headline, but the package is bigger: a roughly 40–48 hour week, paid overtime and rest after on-calls, proper leave, world-class training, and a clear road to permanent residency and a settled life. The pay is what gets your attention; the life is what keeps you.
What it takes to earn it
None of this starts until you're licensed. That means German to B2/C1, your documents translated and notarised, and the exams passed — the FSP and, for non-EU doctors, the KP. Get licence-ready and these salaries stop being other people's numbers and start being yours.
Double a consultant's salary — in your first month.
Book a free call and I'll walk you through your real route to a German doctor's salary, and the first step to get there — doctor to doctor.