Why You Never Ask a German Colleague About Their Salary
Asking a German colleague what they earn is one of the fastest ways to make a room go quiet. The German saying that explains it: Über Geld spricht man nicht, Geld hat man (you don't talk about money, you have it, or you don't). The twist most newcomers never learn: it's fully legal in Germany to discuss your own salary with coworkers. Pay-secrecy clauses in employment contracts are unenforceable, a 2009 regional labor court ruling (LAG Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Az. 2 Sa 183/09) confirmed internal wage figures aren't trade secrets, and the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) protects you from being disciplined for talking about pay. Yet a Stepstone survey of over 12,000 people (December 2019) found only 18 percent of Germans actually discuss salary with colleagues, versus a 26 percent European average, even though 63 percent said they'd be personally comfortable doing so. Since 2017, the Entgelttransparenzgesetz has given employees at companies with over 200 staff a written, once-every-two-years right to request the median comparison pay for an equivalent role, precisely because casual disclosure is so rare. The EU Pay Transparency Directive was supposed to lower that threshold to 100+ employees, ban employers from asking applicants about prior salary, and require a pay range to be disclosed before your first interview, all starting 7 June 2026, but Germany missed that transposition deadline: as of late July 2026 there's still no draft national law, and a full implementation isn't expected before 2027 at the earliest, so none of those specific new obligations are legally binding for German employers yet. Practical takeaway: never ask directly, use the legal information channel if you have real pay-equity concerns, and expect the culture to shift slowly even once the new rules actually take effect.
The Official Rule
Most newcomers assume salary secrecy in Germany must be a legal requirement, since it feels so absolute in practice. It isn’t. The law actually protects your right to talk about your own pay, the taboo is entirely cultural.
Pay-secrecy clauses in German employment contracts don’t hold up in court. A legal explainer at arbeitsrechte.de lays out the basis directly: confidentiality clauses about salary are “neither permissible nor effective,” because they would violate the Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (AGG), Germany’s General Equal Treatment Act. A 2009 ruling from the Landesarbeitsgericht (Regional Labor Court) Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Az. 2 Sa 183/09) established that internal wage information can’t be classified as a protected trade secret. You cannot legally be warned, disciplined, or fired for telling a coworker what you make. The catch is on the other side: you also can’t disclose someone else’s salary that you learned through your job, HR staff and works council members stay bound by separate data protection obligations there.
The German saying that actually explains the culture: Über Geld spricht man nicht, Geld hat man, you don’t talk about money, you have it (or you don’t). Life in Germany’s guide to taboo topics puts salary alongside age and weight as subjects Germans keep firmly private, rooted less in shame than in a broader value placed on modesty and treating people as more than their paycheck. If you’re curious what a colleague earns, the safer conversational territory is talking about financial decisions in the abstract, a home purchase, an investment, not the number itself.
The numbers show a real gap between what Germans say they’re open to and what actually happens. A Stepstone survey of over 12,000 respondents, conducted in December 2019 and reported by Business Insider Deutschland, found that only 18 percent of Germans actually discuss salary with colleagues, compared to a 26 percent European average. Yet 63 percent of the same respondents said they’d personally have no problem talking about it openly, and 53 percent admitted to being curious what their colleagues earn. The taboo isn’t universal disapproval, it’s a reflex most people share but rarely break first.
Because casual disclosure is so rare, Germany built a formal legal channel for it instead. The Entgelttransparenzgesetz (Transparency in Wage Structures Act), in force since July 2017, gives employees at companies with a workforce usually exceeding 200 people the right to submit a written request, once every two years, for the median gross pay of colleagues doing equal or equivalent work. The Local Germany’s coverage of the law’s rollout notes it was aimed squarely at Germany’s gender pay gap, then around 21 percent, one of the widest in Europe at the time. That right only became exercisable from January 2018, six months after the law took effect.
That legal channel was supposed to widen significantly by now, but Germany is behind schedule. The EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970) required a national transposition law by 7 June 2026, one that would lower the company-size threshold for reporting obligations to 100 or more employees, require employers to disclose a starting salary or salary range before your first interview, and ban employers from asking candidates about current or previous pay. That deadline has passed without a German implementation law, no Referentenentwurf (ministry draft bill) had even been published as of late July 2026, and coverage of the delay points to full implementation arriving no earlier than 2027. LyncMe’s expat-focused breakdown of the change calls it a shift that will eventually “fundamentally reorder the power dynamics of the interview room,” but for now none of those specific new disclosure duties are legally binding on German employers, and the underlying cultural discomfort with discussing money isn’t going anywhere once they do take effect.
| Situation | Legal status | Cultural reality |
|---|---|---|
| Telling a coworker what you earn | Fully legal, pay-secrecy contract clauses are unenforceable (AGG) | Rare, only 18% actually do it (Stepstone, Dec 2019) |
| Being disciplined for discussing your own pay | Illegal, cannot be warned or dismissed for it | Not a common fear once explained, but assumed by most newcomers |
| Repeating a colleague's salary you learned via HR/works council | Restricted, data protection obligations apply | Understood as a serious breach of trust |
| Requesting median comparison pay in writing (200+ employees) | Legal right since 2017 (Entgelttransparenzgesetz), once per 2 years | Rarely used informally, treated as a formal HR process |
| Employer disclosing a salary range before your first interview | Was due to become mandatory 7 June 2026 (EU Pay Transparency Directive, 100+ employees), but Germany missed the deadline and has no national law yet | Not yet a lived reality for most German employers |
What Real People Say
The most consistent theme across expat-facing guides and community discussion is the same tension the Stepstone numbers show directly: Germans widely acknowledge the taboo exists, and many say privately they’d rather it didn’t, yet almost nobody wants to be the one who breaks it first. On Quora, in a thread specifically asking why salary discussion is taboo in Germany despite not being explicitly forbidden, the recurring explanation from people answering is that talking about how much you earn in ordinary conversation reads as uncouth, closer to bragging or complaining than to useful information sharing, regardless of whether the number itself is high or low.
Expat-focused sources describe the newcomer experience as genuinely disorienting at first, especially for anyone coming from a culture where salary comparison is a normal part of casual conversation or career planning. Life in Germany’s guide frames the practical advice plainly: don’t ask directly, and if you’re genuinely curious about someone’s financial situation, steer toward a specific decision (buying a home, an investment) rather than the raw number. The pattern described isn’t hostility toward the topic so much as a strong preference for keeping it out of ordinary small talk entirely, distinct from actively hiding wrongdoing.
What comes up less often, but consistently in coverage of the incoming 2026 rules, is that the legal right to ask has existed since 2017 and is barely used. Business coverage of the Stepstone survey highlights this directly: 63 percent say they’d be personally comfortable discussing salary, yet only 18 percent actually do, a gap that suggests the taboo functions more like an unwritten group norm everyone privately doubts than a rule anyone actively enforces.
Step by Step
- Never ask a German colleague directly what they earn, even lightly or as a joke. It’s read as genuinely intrusive, not just slightly awkward, closer to asking about someone’s weight or age than asking what they did on the weekend.
- If you want to compare notes with a colleague you trust, know the law is fully on your side. Discussing your own salary is protected activity, so initiating carefully with someone you’re close to isn’t a legal risk, just be ready for them to decline, most Germans still do.
- If you have a genuine pay-equity concern rather than idle curiosity, use the formal channel instead of asking around. At a company with more than 200 employees, you can submit a written request under the Entgelttransparenzgesetz for the median comparison pay of colleagues in an equal or equivalent role, once every two years.
- If you learn a colleague’s salary through your role (HR, a manager, a works council seat), keep it to yourself. That information stays protected by data rules even though your own salary is yours to discuss freely.
- Don’t expect the new disclosure requirement yet, Germany missed its own 7 June 2026 deadline to pass it into law. Once implementation does happen (not before 2027 by current estimates), employers will have to show a starting salary or range before your first interview and won’t be able to ask what you previously earned, treat that as standard process rather than an awkward overreach once it’s actually in force, but don’t assume a Munich employer is legally required to do it today.
- Don’t read a changed subject or a short answer as personal rejection. It’s very likely the same reflex that keeps 82 percent of Germans from discussing salary with any colleague, not a judgment about you specifically.
Compliance Note
This page describes German workplace culture and the relevant legal framework as of late July 2026, based on the Entgelttransparenzgesetz (in force since 2017), the EU Pay Transparency Directive (its 7 June 2026 national transposition deadline has passed without a German implementation law, full effect not expected before 2027), and cultural and survey sources describing general patterns. Individual companies, industries, and generations vary, younger colleagues and international employers in Munich are often noticeably more open about pay than the averages here suggest. This is not legal advice; for a specific pay-equity concern or a question about your own employment contract, consult a Fachanwalt für Arbeitsrecht (specialist labor lawyer) or your works council.
FAQ & Common Pitfalls
Is it actually illegal for my employer to tell me not to discuss my salary with colleagues?
Yes, that instruction has no legal force, even if it's written into your contract. German legal explainers are consistent on this: pay-secrecy clauses violate the Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (AGG, General Equal Treatment Act), and a 2009 ruling from the Landesgericht Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Az. 2 Sa 183/09) established that internal wage information isn't a protectable trade secret. You cannot legally be warned, disciplined, or dismissed for telling a coworker what you earn. What you can't do is disclose someone else's salary that you learned through your role, HR staff and works council members specifically remain bound by data protection rules there.
My German colleague visibly changed the subject when I mentioned my salary. Did I offend them?
Probably not intentionally against you, but you likely triggered a real discomfort. Only 18 percent of Germans discuss salary with colleagues according to a December 2019 Stepstone survey of over 12,000 respondents, well below the 26 percent European average, even though 63 percent said in the same survey they'd personally be fine talking about it if it came up. The gap between what people say they're open to and what actually happens in a room is the whole cultural pattern here. It reads less as a personal rebuff and more as a reflexive redirect away from a topic Germans are taught early isn't discussed casually, summed up in the saying Über Geld spricht man nicht, Geld hat man (you don't talk about money, you have it, or you don't).
I suspect I'm being paid less than a colleague in the same role. How do I find out without asking around?
Use the legal channel instead of the social one. Since 2017, the Entgelttransparenzgesetz gives employees at companies with more than 200 staff a right to submit a written request, once every two years, for the median comparison pay of colleagues doing equal or equivalent work, specifically to check for unfair treatment. The EU Pay Transparency Directive is meant to lower that threshold to 100 or more employees and add real teeth, if your pay is below the disclosed comparison figure, discrimination would be presumed and your employer would have to prove otherwise, rather than you having to prove the gap yourself, but Germany missed the 7 June 2026 deadline to write this into national law, so for now the 200+ employee, once-every-two-years right under the existing Entgelttransparenzgesetz is what you can actually use.
Will the EU Pay Transparency Directive actually change this culture once it takes effect?
It will likely change the rules faster than it changes the reflex, but Germany hasn't actually flipped that switch yet. The directive was supposed to be written into German law by 7 June 2026, requiring employers to disclose a starting salary or salary range before your first interview and banning them from asking what you previously earned, but that deadline passed with no national implementation law in place, and coverage of the delay points to 2027 at the earliest for a finished law. What expat-focused coverage of the change consistently flags is that the underlying discomfort with talking about money openly is expected to persist even once disclosure becomes mandatory in specific, structured moments like job postings and formal information requests. Expect the eventual law to open new official channels for getting real numbers well before it makes casual salary chat normal at the coffee machine, once Germany actually passes it.