Pick your study level and field, then compare real starting salaries across your target countries. We're building this out country by country, starting with Germany.
Gross starting salary, full-time, roughly one year after graduation, with an estimated net (take-home) salary for a single person underneath. UK and Switzerland also show euro equivalents for easier comparison.
Germany: median entry-level gross salaries from the Stepstone Gehaltsreport 2026, cross-referenced with the Profiling Institut Gehaltsranking 2026 (Stepstone + kununu + Destatis).
United Kingdom: Bachelor's figures from the official HESA Graduate Outcomes survey (salary 15 months after graduation, via Prospects Luminate analysis); Master's figures estimated using the documented postgraduate salary premium reported by FindAMasters/ONS.
Netherlands: Keuzegids Universiteiten 2026 starting-salary rankings, based on SEO Economisch Onderzoek research with CBS, via Beaks.nl.
Switzerland: compiled from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (BFS) graduate salary study (via cash.ch/Beobachter) and industry salary reports; fields without a direct BFS figure are estimated from comparable fields.
Italy: based on net monthly salary one year after graduation by discipline group, from the AlmaLaurea graduate survey (via Unicusano's compilation), then grossed up using typical Italian income-tax and social-contribution rates for these income levels, so it's shown gross like every other country here.
Spain: estimated from Fundación CYD graduate employment data and current market salary surveys (Randstad, Michael Page, Adecco), since no single official source publishes first-year salary broken down this way.
France: estimated from the Conférence des Grandes Écoles (CGE) graduate employment survey and APEC young-graduate salary studies, since these blend engineering- and business-school outcomes rather than publishing a single figure per field.
Net salaries: modeled, not pulled from a payslip: each figure applies that country's official 2026 income-tax brackets and mandatory employee social-insurance rates to the gross salary above, for a single taxpayer with no children, no church tax, and no other deductions or allowances. Sources: Germany: §32a EStG tariff (Bundesfinanzministerium); United Kingdom: HMRC income tax bands and Class 1 National Insurance rates for 2026/27; Switzerland: ESTV direct federal tax tariff combined with Canton/City of Zurich cantonal and communal rates (other cantons can differ by 20+ percentage points, see our tax-regime notes) and BSV/BVG contribution parameters; Netherlands: Belastingdienst Box 1 rates and heffingskorting formulas; Italy: Agenzia delle Entrate IRPEF brackets and employee detrazioni, INPS contribution rate, plus Lombardy/Milan surtaxes; Spain: Agencia Tributaria state IRPF scale, the Comunidad de Madrid regional scale, and Social Security employee contributions; France: the barème de l'impôt sur le revenu, the standard 10% professional expense deduction, and typical employee social contribution rates (CSG/CRDS, health, retirement, unemployment) via URSSAF. These are close approximations of what an official calculator would return for this profile, not a substitute for a real tax return or payroll estimate; actual take-home pay depends on your specific circumstances, canton/region of residence, and any allowances or deductions you're entitled to.
Euro equivalents for the UK (£) and Switzerland (CHF) use approximate exchange rates of £1 ≈ €1.17 and CHF 1 ≈ €1.07 (August 2026); these fluctuate, so treat them as indicative, not exact.
Fields don't map 1:1 across national statistics, so figures for "Business Informatics," "Mechanical Engineering," and similar categories are sometimes blended from the closest reported equivalents. Treat these as directional estimates for planning, not guarantees; always verify against the latest source before making decisions.