Interactive calculator: How much do you earn compared to the rest of Germany?

The vast majority in Germany is certain: I belong to the middle class. The reality is often different. For many people, their real income differs from their perceived position in the German income structure - in both directions.

The German Economic Institute (IW) has developed an interactive calculator that shows how many people in Germany earn more than you and how many earn less. All you have to do is state how much money your household has left after taxes and how many people have to get by with this money. A graphic below shows where your own household falls on the German income spectrum.

You can compare your own income not only with the total population, but also with various subcategories: by educational qualification, age, household type, gender or federal state. How does your own income compare to other high school graduates, other singles or pensioners?

This means that not only can the income of all people in Germany be compared with one of these subcategories. You can also compare the distribution of income in two subcategories: East and West, men and women, singles and families, pensioners and employed people. Your own income is also located in these comparisons.

Behind the computer is data from an EU-wide survey; They refer to the year 2024. Household income after taxes, contributions and transfer payments is considered. Pensions and income from assets also come into play. No attention is paid to advantages that arise because people own the apartment or house in which they live.

A study by the University of Konstanz from 2023 showed: 80 percent of people in Germany classify themselves as middle class. This means that two groups are wrong. Those with lower incomes and those with higher ones. For a rough orientation: The IW divides the income distribution into five groups.

For people living alone, this classification looks like this with regard to the monthly net income in 2024:

under 1450 euros: relatively poor

1450 to 1940 euros: lower middle

1940 to 3630 euros: middle in the narrow sense

3630 to 6050 euros: upper middle

from 6050 euros: relatively rich

According to the Konstanz study, the misconception that they belong to the middle class is particularly common among people who earn particularly well. The higher the income, the more often people classify themselves incorrectly and the further away from their real position in the income structure they place themselves.

If the German income distribution were a ladder with ten rungs, the ladder of perceived income distribution would only have five rungs. According to their own perception, people in Germany live between rungs two and seven. On average, the 20 percent of people with the lowest incomes think they are about one and a half rungs above their actual earnings. The 20 percent with the highest incomes are even further off the mark: they feel more than three rungs poorer than they are. Not even one in seven of these people falls into the correct income group.

Both the IW and the Konstanz study justify this misjudgment with a misinterpreted averageness: people surround themselves with people who are similar to them and deduce from this that they are the mediocre of society. This effect affects low-income earners as well as top earners.