What Germany's 2027 doctor pay rise means for your offer
German hospital doctors get a 2.95% pay rise in 2027 under the TV-Ärzte table. Here is how to check your own contract uses it.
Ahmed Quteishat
Assistenzarzt, Innere Medizin (Berlin) · Founder of Klaro
The pay table German hospital doctors are paid from, called TV-Ärzte, goes up 2.95 percent in 2027. That only helps you if your contract points to this table.
What is TV-Ärzte?
TV-Ärzte is the collective pay table (Tarifvertrag) for doctors at university hospitals and state-run hospitals. The doctors' union, the Marburger Bund, negotiates it with the states together (TdL).
Your base pay under this table is not set by your specialty. It is set by your pay step (Erfahrungsstufe). That step goes up with your years of service as a doctor.
Who actually gets the 2.95 percent?
Doctors at university hospitals and most state-run hospitals get it automatically. It starts from the date the new step begins.
Private hospital groups, such as the large chains, are not bound by TV-Ärzte. A private hospital can pay less, the same, or more.
It depends on its own house agreement (Haustarifvertrag). Or it depends on what you negotiate yourself.
How do I check my own offer?
Look at your offer letter or contract. It should name the table, usually written as "TV-Ärzte/TdL" or your state's version of it.
It should also name your pay step, for example step 2 or step 3. A letter with only a lump euro number tells you nothing on its own.
If no table or step is written, ask HR in writing. Ask which table and step that number comes from.
A sanity check: the Blue Card floor
If you are coming on an EU Blue Card, there is a legal salary floor for shortage jobs like doctors. It is €45,934.20 a year (as of 2026).
A normal first-year contract under TV-Ärzte sits above this floor. If your written offer is close to it, or below it, ask why.
What to do before you sign
- Ask HR in writing: which pay table and which step applies to me, from which date?
- Compare the euro number in your letter to the current TV-Ärzte table your hospital uses, not last year's.
- If your hospital is a private chain, ask if it follows TV-Ärzte at all, or its own house agreement.
Stand: 2026-11-08. This is a guide, not legal advice. Every German state has its own rules, and rules change. Check with your state's medical chamber (Landesärztekammer) before you act.
Ahmed Quteishat — Assistenzarzt, Innere Medizin (Berlin) · Founder of Klaro
Ahmed built Klaro after watching how much of a doctor's move to Germany gets lost in paperwork rather than medicine.
