Salary Transparency

I’m of the firm opinion that workers should talk openly about their salaries. Taboos akin to “don’t talk about money” only serve to make it easier for employers to exploit workers – if you don’t know what a good salary is, it’s hard to know when you’re paid badly. While it’s not a substitute for strong unions and labor agreements, I think it’s the next best thing to create transparency by talking publicly about salaries.

That’s why I decided to start a table of my salaries here on my website, inspired by Xe Iaso, who has something similar on their website.

I’m still a student at university, so there’s not a whole lot of jobs here yet, and all of them are part-time, but I still think this information can be useful, e.g. for other students working part-time. Especially the comparison between the hourly salary my university pays and what I’m currently getting paid in the industry is quite interesting.

Context: I hold a bachelor’s degree in computer science, and am currently in the last stretch of my master’s degree. For more information about my education, skills and experience, take a look at my work page.

Salary Data

Job Employer Start End Hours Salary How I Left
software developer digitally induced 2023-08-01 current 14 21.00 €/h
software developer1 digitally induced 2023-02-13 2023-07-31 14 18.00 €/h2 raise
student tutor3 TU Dortmund University 2022-04-01 2022-09-30 14 13.05 €/h contract ended
student tutor4 TU Dortmund University 2020-11-01 2021-10-31 9 13.05 €/h5 contract ended
student tutor6 TU Dortmund University 2017-04-01 2020-09-30 9 10.68 €/h7 contract ended

If you happen upon this page, and also have your salary data published, you’re welcome to send me the link, so I can add it to the list.

  1. I was nearing my maximum time as working student for my university (thanks WissZeitVG), and I wanted to get some “real-world” experience, so I got a job in the software industry.↩︎

  2. In my interview, when asked for what salary I was expecting, I told my employer 21 €/h, which I based on salaries I knew from friends also working part-time, plus some wiggle room for negotiation.

    My employer suggested 18 €/h as a starting salary instead due to my limited non-academic experience, with prospect for a re-negotiation soon. I accepted.↩︎

  3. This consisted of 1 fixed-term contract, 6 months, for Funktionale Programmierung (functional programming).↩︎

  4. This consisted of 2 fixed-term contracts, 5 and 6 months, first for the Softwarepraktikum (software practical course), then for Funktionale Programmierung (functional programming).↩︎

  5. I got paid more than before because I had finished my bachelor’s degree.↩︎

  6. This consisted of 8 fixed-term contracts, 5 terms of 6 months, then 3 terms of 4 months.

    For the first 5 contracts I alternated between tutoring for Betriebssysteme (operating systems) and Funktionale Programmierung (functional programming), the last 3 contracts were for Softwarepraktikum (software practical course).↩︎

  7. Since then, the minimum wage in Germany was raised to 12 €/h, effective 2022-10-01. Now the salary for student tutors at TU Dortmund University without a degree is exactly those 12 €/h minimum wage. Take from that what you will.↩︎