How Much Do Hospital Doctors Earn in Germany? 2026 Municipal Hospital Salary Data
Doctors working in Germany’s municipal hospitals can earn between €5,722 and €11,923 gross per month under the latest TV-Ärzte/VKA collective agreement, depending on their level of seniority and experience.
The current salary table applies from 1 June 2026 to 31 December 2026 and covers full-time doctors working a 40-hour week in municipal hospitals across Germany, excluding Berlin.
For specialist physicians, or Fachärzte, the current tariff salary ranges from:
€7,552 per month to €9,699 per month
That is equivalent to approximately:
€90,626 to €116,387 per year in base salary
For senior physicians, or Oberärzte, the salary scale rises further, reaching approximately €129,731 per year at the highest published tariff stage.
These figures are particularly useful because they provide a current 2026 benchmark for salaried doctors working in Germany's municipal hospital system.
However, they represent tariff base salary, not necessarily total annual physician earnings.
What is the 2026 salary for hospital doctors in Germany?
The TV-Ärzte/VKA agreement divides doctors into four principal salary groups.
Arzt / Ärztin
Doctors in the Ä1 category earn between:
€5,722.05 and €7,355.29 gross per month
depending on their years of medical employment.
On a simple 12-month basis, this equates to approximately: ~
€68,665 to €88,263 gross per year
The six stages are:
Experience | Monthly base salary | Approx. annual base salary |
1st year | €5,722.05 | €68,665 |
2nd year | €6,046.42 | €72,557 |
3rd year | €6,278.07 | €75,337 |
4th year | €6,679.58 | €80,155 |
5th year | €7,158.37 | €85,900 |
6th year | €7,355.29 | €88,263 |
How much do specialist doctors — Fachärzte — earn in Germany?
For doctors who have completed specialist training and are employed as a Facharzt or Fachärztin, the 2026 tariff begins at:
€7,552.19 gross per month
and reaches:
€9,698.91 gross per month
at the highest published experience stage.
That gives the following base-salary range:
Specialist experience | Monthly base salary | Approx. annual base salary |
From 1st year | €7,552.19 | €90,626 |
From 4th year | €8,185.40 | €98,225 |
From 7th year | €8,741.40 | €104,897 |
From 9th year | €9,065.74 | €108,789 |
From 11th year | €9,382.33 | €112,588 |
From 13th year | €9,698.91 | €116,387 |
For a specialist physician working in a municipal hospital, this is one of the clearest current salary benchmarks available in Germany.
A newly qualifying Facharzt entering the first tariff stage therefore has a base salary of approximately €90,600 a year, while a doctor who has progressed to the highest published Facharzt stage receives approximately €116,400 a year before additional payments.
How much do Oberärzte earn?
Doctors employed at senior physician level — Oberarzt/Oberärztin — receive a higher tariff salary.
The current monthly figures are:
€9,459.56 from the first relevant stage
€10,015.53 from the fourth year
€10,810.95 from the seventh year
On a 12-month basis, that is approximately:
€113,515 to €129,731 per year in base salary
For physicians progressing into senior hospital roles, the tariff therefore places base annual compensation comfortably above €100,000.
What can the most senior doctors earn?
The fourth tariff category covers physicians acting as the permanent representative of the chief physician — described as ständige Vertretung des Chefarztes, or CA-Vertreter.
The salary is:
€11,127.50 per month at the first published stage
rising to:
€11,922.95 per month at the higher stage.
That equates to approximately:
€133,530 to €143,075 per year in base salary
These are the highest salaries included in the standard VKA physician tariff table.
Is this the total amount a hospital doctor earns?
Not necessarily.
This is one of the most important points when interpreting the German figures.
The published values are gross tariff base salaries for a full-time 40-hour working week.
They do not include payments for:
Bereitschaftsdienst — on-site standby/on-call duties;
Rufbereitschaft — on-call availability;
allowances and supplements; or
other additional payments.
The published guidance also states that the TV-Ärzte agreement does not include an annual special payment in these figures.
As a result, a physician's actual annual gross income can be higher than the basic figures shown in the tariff table.
This distinction matters when comparing German physician compensation with survey data from other countries.
A salary survey reporting total earnings including overtime or additional clinical activity should not be compared directly with the German tariff base salary without understanding what is included.
Does specialty affect the tariff salary?
The VKA tariff does not provide separate salary scales for individual medical specialties.
A cardiologist, neurologist, oncologist or radiologist employed at the same tariff grade and experience stage would generally use the same published base salary scale.
Instead, compensation in this dataset is driven principally by:
employment grade;
specialist status;
seniority; and
years of relevant professional experience.
The figures therefore provide a benchmark for salaried hospital physicians, rather than a measure of the earnings of individual specialties.
This is an important distinction.
The data should not be interpreted as showing that, for example, cardiologists earn €9,000 per month specifically because they are cardiologists.
It shows what a physician employed at the relevant Facharzt or Oberarzt tariff stage is entitled to under this collective agreement.
Who does the TV-Ärzte/VKA salary scale apply to?
The current table applies to physicians employed in municipal hospitals covered by the TV-Ärzte/VKA agreement.
It applies nationally with Berlin excluded from this particular tariff area, and the published full-time salary figures are based on a 40-hour working week.
It should therefore not automatically be applied to:
university hospitals operating under different collective agreements;
private hospital groups with their own remuneration arrangements;
physicians working primarily in private practice;
self-employed doctors; or
doctors whose individual employment contracts fall outside the VKA agreement.
Germany has several different physician employment and remuneration structures, so understanding the employment setting is essential before using any salary benchmark.
How much does experience change a specialist physician's salary?
Experience makes a substantial difference within the Facharzt scale.
A Facharzt at the first stage receives:
€7,552.19 per month
while the highest listed stage pays:
€9,698.91 per month.
That is an increase of approximately €2,147 per month, or nearly €25,800 per year, between the first and highest published Facharzt tariff stages.
The Facharzt progression points occur from the:
1st year;
4th year;
7th year;
9th year;
11th year; and
13th year of specialist activity.
For physicians assessing their compensation, it is therefore not sufficient simply to ask what a Facharzt earns.
The relevant question is also:
At which Facharzt experience stage am I being paid?
What should hospital doctors in Germany take from the 2026 data?
The 2026 VKA tariff provides a particularly clear benchmark for salaried physicians working in Germany's municipal hospital system.
The major figures are:
Arzt/Ärztin: €5,722–€7,355 per month
Facharzt/Fachärztin: €7,552–€9,699 per month
Oberarzt/Oberärztin: €9,460–€10,811 per month
Permanent Chief Physician Deputy: €11,128–€11,923 per month
For specialist physicians in particular, this means a published base salary of approximately:
€90,600 to €116,400 per year
before additional remuneration such as standby duty, on-call payments and applicable supplements.
For senior Oberärzte, base salary can reach approximately:
€129,700 per year
and the most senior category in the standard table reaches approximately:
€143,100 per year.
For an individual hospital doctor, the most useful question is therefore not simply:
“What do doctors earn in Germany?”
It is:
“What tariff group and experience stage applies to my role, and what additional payments sit on top of my contractual base salary?”
That provides a much more meaningful way to benchmark physician compensation within Germany's municipal hospital system.
Source: Marburger Bund / TV-Ärzte/VKA physician remuneration table, valid 1 June 2026 to 31 December 2026.
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