How does your salary compare? Annual GDCh/VAA income survey launched at the end of January 2026!

Participate by 15 April 2026 and find out if your salary is right. It's worth taking part!

Here's the link to the online survey.

You would like to take part in the upcoming income survey and receive the complete evaluation by career years? Then check your current master data via MyGDCh. Ordinary GDCh members whose master data contains employer information that is NOT subject to public sector pay scales will be contacted automatically at the beginning of the year.
Otherwise, please write to us after the call in the February issue of News. We will then send you the questionnaire manually.
The survey is open from 1 February to 15 April of each year.

All full members who work outside the public sector are invited to take part. The questionnaire will be sent by post at the end of January to the shipping address on file at the GDCh.

Members,

• who work in industry,
• free enterprise,
• publishing,
• associations or similar organisations,
• who were employed in Germany in the previous year

But have not received the questionnaire can contact the Careers Service (karriere@gdch.de), stating their membership number. You will then be sent your personalised questionnaire

The income survey is being carried out as a joint campaign by the GDCh and VAA. The large number of participants in a joint survey ensures that the data can be analysed in a statistically meaningful way. And unlike many other salary reports, the GDCh/VAA survey also takes into account the number of years in the profession, among other factors.

The results should again be of particular interest to many GDCh members who do not work in the large chemical industry, but in smaller companies from a wide range of sectors, including outside the chemical industry. It has long been suspected that salaries there are lower than in the large chemical industry. However, concrete figures have only been available since the GDCh began participating in the survey, which was previously conducted solely by the VAA, as VAA members mostly work in large companies in the chemical industry.

Due to the different membership structures of the GDCh and VAA, the results are also presented differently. In the GDCh brochure, not only the incomes within the chemical industry are presented, but also the incomes outside the chemical industry. These are missing in the VAA brochure because the VAA includes all members of the chemical industry. Conversely, the VAA publishes information on the salaries of its members in the commercial sector, which is not included in the GDCh brochure.

As in previous years, only those members who have taken part in the survey will receive the results. For this purpose, the GDCh will receive a list of the participant numbers of the participating members from Christian Grund.

The participant number is individual for each member and can be found at the top of the questionnaire. To ensure the anonymity of the survey, please separate the questionnaire from the sheet with your address. There should also be no return address on the envelope. Christian Grund and his team work with the participant numbers and the associated data, but cannot deduce the membership number from the numbers and certainly not the associated persons, as they do not receive any personal data other than the participant number.

The GDCh Careers Service team knows the membership and participant numbers of their participating members, but not the associated salary data. They do not even get to see the completed questionnaires, as these are sent by the participants directly to the chair in Aachen.

The most important questions in the questionnaire are, of course, about salary. However, it also asks about a change of job or a work-related stay abroad as well as the number of subordinate employees and a company car. Other questions deal with the participant's social situation, such as whether they live in a partnership or have dependent children. The respondent is also asked about their general satisfaction with their job. The evaluation of all this information is intended to provide comprehensive information not only about income, but also about the participants' career paths and social situation in general.

The individual participant number can also be used to carry out so-called longitudinal analyses, in which the individual salary development of the participants is tracked over several years. This makes it possible, for example, to determine the influence of a stay abroad or a change of job on salary. Participants who do not take part every year, but at longer intervals, can also be included in the longitudinal analysis.

1. Who can take part in the income survey?

All GDCh members who are employed in industry or commerce, i.e. who are not subject to public sector wage structures and who work in Germany.

2. Why are members who work abroad not allowed to participate?

Because the cost of living, income and its tax treatment differ in each country, income earned abroad cannot be compared with income earned in Germany. We would therefore have to make a separate analysis for each country. However, a large number of data records are required to enable a detailed analysis by years of employment. As our members living abroad are spread across many countries, there are too few members per country to produce reliable analyses (see also question 19).
In 2015, we conducted a survey of members in Switzerland for the first time, which was carried out jointly with the VAA and the Swiss Chemical Society. However, due to the lower number of participants, this survey will not be conducted annually, but at longer intervals.

3. Are chemists who are not members of the GDCh also allowed to take part in the income survey?

No. Our income survey is a service for our members and only they are allowed to take part in the survey.

4. How do I receive the questionnaire?

Members whose work address tells us that they are employed in the industry will receive the questionnaire by post at the end of January.

5. Why haven't I received the questionnaire even though I work in the industry?

We only have the home address of many of our members and therefore cannot recognise where they work. If you inform our member service of your work address or change it yourself under MyGDCh, you will automatically be included in the following year. (Of course, you can still have the "News" sent to your private address, even if you have entered a work address). Members who work in industry and have not received the questionnaire can of course request it from the GDCh Careers Service.

6. What is the participant number printed on the questionnaire?

The identification or participant number is generated from the membership number. All participants therefore have their personal participant number, which will not change in subsequent years.

7. What is the purpose of the participant number?

The participant number can be used to carry out so-called longitudinal analyses, in which the individual salary development of participants is tracked over several years. This makes it possible, for example, to determine the influence of a stay abroad or a change of job on salary.

8. Is the survey still anonymous if all participants have an individual number?

Yes, anonymity is maintained in any case. The identification number is assigned using an encryption technique based on the membership number. At the Chair of Human Resources at RWTH Aachen University, where the analysis is carried out, Professor Christian Grund and his team work with the member numbers and the associated data. However, they cannot deduce the membership number from the numbers and certainly not the associated persons, as they do not receive any personal data apart from the participant number. The GDCh, on the other hand, knows the membership and participant numbers of its participating members, but not the associated salary data. We do not get to see the completed questionnaires, as these are sent directly to the chair in Aachen by the participants. An envelope with the address is enclosed with the questionnaire. To maintain anonymity, you should not indicate a sender on the envelope.

9. What happens if I remove the participant number from the questionnaire or make it unrecognisable?

Once the evaluation has been completed, the GDCh will receive a list of participant numbers from the Aachen Chair. From this, the membership numbers and thus the participants can be identified. If your participant number is missing on the questionnaire, we have no proof that you took part in the survey and will not send you the results of the survey (see also question 14).

10. by when must the questionnaires be at the university?

The questionnaires are normally accepted by 15 April.

The deadlines are also stated on the questionnaires themselves and here on the Internet.

11. What happens if I forget to put sufficient postage on the letter?

Letters with insufficient postage will not be accepted by the post office, so senders will not take part in the survey.

12. Are the results the same as the results of the VAA income survey?

This is a joint survey by the GDCh and the VAA. Therefore, the results are also the same. However, there are differences in the publication of the data. The results of the participants who work outside the chemical industry are only published in the GDCh brochure.

13 I am a member of both organisations. Who should I join?

As a rule, dual members receive the questionnaire via the VAA. If you receive a questionnaire from the GDCh, take part via the GDCh.

If you are interested in the income outside the chemical industry, take part via the GDCh, because these results are only shown in the GDCh brochure (see question 12). Please do not participate twice, otherwise you will distort the results.

In the interests of those who took the trouble to complete the questionnaire, only those members who took part in the survey will receive the brochure with the results. For this purpose, the GDCh will receive a list of participant numbers from the RWTH Aachen University (see also question 9). Experience shows that participation continues to fall when the results are made available to everyone.

15 But that's unfair. As I work abroad, I'm not allowed to take part at all and have no chance of receiving the results.

16. Is there any other information about salaries for members who are unable to take part?

For members who are unable to take part, we have produced a much shorter version, which members can obtain on request from the GDCh Careers Service. For career starters there is information in the GDCh members' area under "MyGDCh" at www.gdch.de under "Special offers for members" and "Salaries for female chemists".

17. when will the brochure with the results of the income survey be ready?

The brochure is expected to be ready in July/August and will then be sent to all participants

18 Why is the GDCh brochure ready later than the VAA brochure?

Because we are a small department and produce it ourselves. In addition, we are busy with the annual statistics of degree programmes until mid-June and can only take care of the income survey after that. However, we endeavour to finish a little earlier every year. We promise!

19. why is there no extra evaluation for food chemists (polymer chemists, analysts, construction chemists ...)? Surely this is a large group within the GDCh!

A big plus of the survey is the breakdown of income by years in the profession. After all, it's not much use giving an average salary if the incomes of people just starting out in their careers and those who have been employed for many years are lumped together. To do this, however, we need a minimum number of participants of several hundred people. If we were to divide our participating members into different groups, there would be far too few data sets for us to be able to compile serious statistics. We therefore limit our analysis to separating participants from inside and outside the chemical industry (see also question 12).

20 Why are the analyses for participants from the new federal states so short?

Unfortunately, the number of participants from the new federal states is too low to carry out more detailed analyses (see also question 19).

GDCh members can find the short version of the results of the current evaluation of salaries at MyGDCh → "special offers", "Salaries...".

Information on starting salaries for chemists in the chemical industry can be found here