Salary negotiations are naturally a difficult subject and many employees find it difficult to ask for more money.

At least that's what a survey by the Stepstone job platform, available to the FAZ, suggests.

According to this, 53 percent feel uncomfortable negotiating a salary increase.

The main reason (52 percent) given by those surveyed was having difficulty praising themselves.

Other points mentioned are that this is not welcomed in the company (33 percent) and the concern that the relationship with the boss may be damaged (31 percent).

Twenty-eight percent also said they didn't like talking about money, while 25 percent said they weren't sure if their work warranted better pay.

As part of the survey, around 5,100 employees – including around 1,100 managers – were surveyed in January 2022.

As part of a significantly larger-scale data analysis, Stepstone also created a "salary report" in cooperation withSalary.de.

The values ​​are not representative, but the data package with more than 600,000 salary details from the past 12 months is very extensive.

64 percent come from men, 36 percent from women.

The gross annual salary including bonuses, commissions, bonuses or other special payments is listed.

While the gross median salary in Germany is a total of 44,100 euros, doctors are at the top of the ranking in terms of individual professions.

According to the data, the gross median salary for senior physicians is even 124,800 euros.

Engineers and professionals from the IT sector also occupy top positions.

The biotech and pharmaceutical industry stands for good pay (not only since Corona).

The financial world also has good salaries to offer.

This typically looks very different with a view to call centers or the catering trade, but below-average salaries are also still being achieved in retail.

Not to forget the factor of a university degree.

Looking at the median, the difference is quite clear: on average, employees without a university degree earn EUR 40,600 gross annual salary compared to the EUR 59,700 earned by academics on average.

Depending on the industry and position, there are of course deviations.

In individual cases, non-graduates can of course earn more than employees with a university degree, for example if they are in a more lucrative industry.

A blanket statement can therefore not be made here.

The size of a company also plays a role that should not be underestimated, as the data show.

Last but not least, large differences can also be seen on the map of Germany.

The main reason is, of course, that large companies from rather well-paying sectors are based there.

In the south in particular, but also in the region around Frankfurt or Cologne, salaries are generally rather high.