High-ranking managers in DAX companies, lawyers in top law firms or doctors: many Germans have a clear idea of the professions in which employees can earn the most money. In fact, employees do not have to receive a salary of millions to be among the top earners, as an exclusive analysis by the job platform Stepstone shows.
Analysts from Stepstone evaluated for the Handelsblatt what annual salaries are necessary to be in the top one, five or ten percent. The threshold is lower than many might assume. Which jobs offer the highest salary – and guarantee a high income in the future.
Jan Schulz-Gebhard, wealth researcher at the University of Bamberg, says: “Almost all people classify themselves as middle class – regardless of whether they actually own very little or very much.” There seems to be a difference between self-perception and the facts.
In order to create reliable comparison values, Stepstone accessed more than a million compensation data. These were submitted on the platform between January 2022 and November 2025, including bonuses, commissions and rewards.
According to Stepstone's analysis, the median salary of the best-earning 'one percent' in Germany is 139,000 euros - more than twice as high as that of an average employee.
The median salary is the amount at which half of the people in a group earn less and half earn more. It shows a typical income of a group more accurately than the average salary, which can be influenced by extremely high or low values.
According to Stepstone, the top five and ten percent respectively earn 101,250 euros and 87,000 euros gross per year.
According to Stepstone, salaries are highest on average in the city state of Hamburg, closely followed by Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The salary of top earners in the new federal states is significantly lower. In Saxony-Anhalt, for example, the top-earning one percent only has a median salary of 101,500 euros - and is therefore around 40,000 euros below the top salary in Hamburg or Hesse.
“Hamburg, Hesse as well as Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg benefit from a high concentration of economically strong sectors and international companies,” explains Stepstone economist and salary expert Dennis Dittrich.
In Hesse, where the banking metropolis of Frankfurt is located, the financial sector plays a central role. In Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, on the other hand, the many industrial companies, mechanical engineering and the automotive industry still ensure high salaries.
And according to Dittrich, Hamburg is an important logistics, trade and media location. There are many large companies there, such as the aircraft manufacturer Airbus or logistics companies such as Hapag-Lloyd - and accordingly many well-paid management positions.
Dittrich cites the “urban effect” as another important factor why above-average salaries are paid in these federal states:
“In large labor markets, many specialized professionals meet many companies,” he says. As a result, it often happens that there is the right job for the existing qualifications. Which in turn can lead to higher productivity and correspondingly higher salaries.
According to salary data from Stepstone, doctors, chief information security officers and heads of research and development, among others, earn particularly well. A senior physician receives a median gross salary of 200,000 euros per year. For a Chief Information Security Officer it is 117,250 euros. For comparison: According to Stepstone data, an electrical engineer only earns 49,100 euros gross per year.
In addition to the professional profile and location, other factors influence how much someone earns. The most important one is probably whether someone has personnel responsibility. According to another analysis by Stepstone, anyone who already manages a small team with up to four employees has more than twice the chance of earning a six-figure salary as someone without management responsibility.
Of those who lead a team of more than 50 employees, around 18 percent receive a salary of more than 100,000 euros. And of bosses who manage more than 100 employees, 31.6 percent earn six figures.
Michael Kind is a salary expert at the Kienbaum personnel consultancy. Most likely, he says, is a top salary of 130,000 euros and more in jobs in which the added value per capita is high, the responsibility for results is high and the skills are scarce. “Sectors in which you can find such professions include the financial sector, the pharmaceutical industry, parts of the tech industry and industrial companies that are currently undergoing a major transformation.”
Stepstone expert Dittrich says that a top salary is also possible without management responsibility. But for this, employees need a highly specialized specialist function. In IT, these can be skills in the areas of artificial intelligence, cloud architecture or cybersecurity. But specialists in the financial sector, strategy consulting or engineering can also earn very well with a specialist career.
According to Stepstone, the top five percent of highest earners include patent attorneys (median: 104,750 euros). The same applies to auditors with 102,250 euros.
A specialist lawyer in administrative law or a master in the field of electrochemistry with a gross annual salary of 87,250 euros also make it into the top ten percent with a median salary of 87,000 euros.
According to Dittrich, good income opportunities arise from highly productive activities for which there is only a limited supply of skilled workers available. In addition to lawyers and doctors, employees in technology-driven areas such as AI development will also be among the top earners in the future. But according to Dittrich, demand has also multiplied in logistics, crafts and healthcare, for example among electronics technicians.
The expert assumes that many of these activities cannot be automated or can only be automated to a limited extent and that companies therefore continue to rely on human expertise. Due to demographic change, the competition for these skilled workers will continue to increase, which will have a positive effect on salaries in the medium term.
Kienbaum consultant Kind assumes that the path to the top of the company hierarchy continues to be the most promising for very high earnings. In addition, the chance of a very good income is high if you decide on a career in the AI or cybersecurity sector. Or for a career as an engineer in energy and industrial transformation.
Last year, women earned an average of 16 percent less than men. According to the Federal Statistical Office, their average gross hourly wage was around 23 euros - 4.24 euros below that of men.
In the upper income classes, however, a different picture emerges, says Kienbaum consultant Kind. Women who have been working in management positions for a long time would only have a comparatively small gender pay gap.
The situation is different for women who have only recently been promoted to high salary brackets. Here the differences are often even greater. According to Kind, however, this is often due to the fact that many companies are increasingly filling management positions with women. As a result, the proportion of female top earners has increased.
When these women are new to their roles, they initially earn less in relation to their long-standing management colleagues. However, with increasing experience, the gap is likely to narrow further, says Kind.
According to wealth researcher Schulz-Gebhard, the point at which one is rich in Germany is defined differently. It is important to distinguish between income and assets.
“The distribution of wealth is far more unequal than that of income because wealth can often be accumulated and inherited over several generations,” says Schulz-Gebhard, “while income usually comes from ongoing employment.”
According to surveys, 90 percent of those surveyed are of the opinion that people with a net worth of more than one million euros, including real estate, are rich. “The term super-rich often comes up in academic debates.” This applies to assets of one billion euros or more. Depending on the source – such as “Manager Magazin”, “Forbes” or Oxfam – there are only 100 to 250 people in Germany.
In general, very great wealth would come from capital gains rather than from work. In Germany, says the researcher, more than half of the assets are now based on inheritances, especially in the highest groups. Personal work performance therefore only plays a subordinate role when assets are exceptionally high.
