Full-time employees in health and care professions earned an average of EUR 4,048 gross without special payments in April 2024.

That was 1,219 euros more than ten years earlier, as the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Tuesday on the occasion of International Nurses Day on May 12. In April 2014, full-time employees in health and care professions earned an average of 2,829 euros gross.

According to the earnings survey, in April 2024, almost 1.7 million people were employed full-time in health and care professions, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of them were women. According to Destatis, earnings growth was greater in health and care occupations than in many other occupational groups. One reason for this may be the introduction and development of the statutory minimum wage since 2015, from which employees in health and care benefited more than those in other occupations. Across the economy as a whole, full-time employees earned an average gross salary of €3,978 in April 2024, according to the Federal Office. This was €988 more than ten years earlier. In the better-paid engineering and aviation professions, the increase in earnings within ten years was similar to that in health and care professions, at €1,218 and €1,157 respectively. In contrast, gross monthly earnings in transport, logistics, and traffic occupations, for example, rose significantly below average over the same period, rising by €739, while in skilled trades, metalworking, and electrical occupations, the increase was €899 each. The median earnings cited here represent the middle of the distribution of full-time employees and divide them into two equal halves: one half earns more and the other less than the median. According to Destatis, within the health and care professions, skilled workers in geriatric care in particular have benefited from particularly strong increases in earnings over the past ten years. Full-time skilled workers in this field earned an average gross salary of €4,228 in April 2024, up €1,612 from ten years earlier. Skilled workers in health and nursing earned €4,310 gross in April 2024, an average increase of €1,260 from ten years earlier. By comparison, in the economy as a whole, earnings at the skilled worker level rose by €884 to €3,580 gross per month over the same period.