Average starting salary for Germany?

pixelb

I'm looking at a taking a job overseas and the company's asked me what my "salary expectations" are. Has anyone worked in Germany (or the EU generally) who can give me some insight on what a typical starting salary for a 3d artist is? Not junior or senior, just straight 3d. If its helps, I'd be living in a large city and I have around two years professional experience, counting internships and freelance.

cptSwing

Juniors from my neck of the woods (Berlin) earn anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 before taxes. Can't comment on 'regular' artist's salaries - the ceiling isn't too far off though from what I gather. As usual, it also depends on the company's size, current needs, your negotiation skills.

Good luck!

cptSwing

Taxes are between 1/3d and 1/4th of your gross income over here, by the way. Again, depending on various factors (how clever your prospective tax advisor is, marital status, etc etc).

pixelb

Thank you,that's very useful to know.

ambershee

This is a 'how long is a piece of string?' question - Germany is a reasonably large country with a fair bit of variation between cities. Where I am in Munich, you'd need perhaps as much as 1/3rd more than you would in a city in the north.

Your best bet is to compare your current salary with a quality of life index and work it out from there - what do I need to match what I currently have?

cptSwing

^ Yeah. Salaries in Berlin are probably a little lower than Munich/Hamburg/Frankfurt due to higher competition and lower living costs.

JKMakowka

Hmm, did they say how you would get a work-visa? Because unless you earn something like 45,000€ per year you will not get a "blue-card" and thus getting a work permit without being an EU citizen will be... difficult.

Shrike

If you're from the US, game salaries are about 30% better there in average, but that info is maybe dated, cannot really tell

[HP]

cptSwing wrote: »

Juniors from my neck of the woods (Berlin) earn anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 before taxes.

+1

pixelb

Of course the safe answer to a question like this is always "it depends," but that's not exactly helpful when someone's asking you for a number. Unfortunately I'm not coming from a salaried job, so I can't simply weigh it against what I'm making now. The best I could do would be to compare it to the last job offer I got.

Still, stuff like the difference between Berlin and other cities is news to me so I'm grateful for the info.

The company's said they can get me a work permit, and they've obviously been through the process enough times before that I'm no too concerned about it.