Chemical industry tariff: Eastern Germany
Wage table, working hours and special payments for the Eastern Germany chemical-industry bargaining region.
Table of Contents
Eastern Germany is the one region among the 13 in this calculator with a fundamentally different working-time structure: instead of a single fixed full-time weekly hour figure like the western regions, the source gives a flexible range of 32 to 40 hours for Eastern Germany, with the monthly table figures calculated on a 38.5-hour-week basis.
This structure is real and independently confirmed, not simply a copy of the West with different numbers: Eastern Germany's own monthly divisor (167.5) only reconciles exactly against the source's published hourly-pay column when calculated on 38.5 rather than 37.5 weekly hours.
Pay groups E1 through E13
E1 sits at 3,062 EUR a month in Eastern Germany - the lowest figure among all 13 bargaining regions in this calculator. E6, entry after completed vocational training, starts at 3,552 EUR and rises across four steps to 4,120 EUR after six years. The top group E13 sits at 6,736 EUR, as a single unified figure with no commercial/technical split.
For group E10, the source is missing exactly the final step "after 6 years" entirely - a genuine blank in the source itself, not a technical gap introduced by this calculator. The table deliberately shows no figure for that one combination.
| Pay group | ab 18. Lebensjahr | Anfangsstufe | nach 2 Jahren | nach 3 Jahren | nach 4 Jahren | nach 6 Jahren |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E1 | 3,062.00 € | – | – | – | – | – |
| E2 | 3,215.00 € | – | – | – | – | – |
| E3 | 3,307.00 € | – | – | – | – | – |
| E4 | 3,368.00 € | – | – | – | – | – |
| E5 | – | 3,429.00 € | – | 3,515.00 € | – | 3,600.00 € |
| E6 | – | 3,552.00 € | 3,765.00 € | – | 3,943.00 € | 4,120.00 € |
| E7 | – | 3,674.00 € | 3,894.00 € | – | 4,115.00 € | 4,335.00 € |
| E8 | – | 3,797.00 € | 4,025.00 € | – | 4,291.00 € | 4,556.00 € |
| E9 | – | 3,625.00 € | 3,968.00 € | – | 4,360.00 € | 4,899.00 € |
| E10 | – | 4,073.00 € | 4,448.00 € | – | 4,877.00 € | – |
| E11 | – | 4,538.00 € | 4,945.00 € | – | 5,294.00 € | 5,818.00 € |
| E12 | – | 4,896.00 € | 5,335.00 € | – | 5,775.00 € | 6,277.00 € |
| E13 | – | 6,736.00 € | – | – | – | – |
What the pay groups describe
E1 covers tasks needing only brief introduction, E6 marks entry after completed vocational training, E13 covers independent work with extensive professional experience - in Eastern Germany too, with no commercial/technical split, as in Berlin (West).
Working hours: the key difference
Unlike every western German bargaining region, the weekly working time in Eastern Germany isn't fixed to a single number but can range individually between 32 and 40 hours. The tabled monthly figures apply for a calculation basis of 38.5 hours - someone actually working exactly 38.5 weekly hours gets precisely the table figure; someone working 32 or 40 hours gets correspondingly less or more.
For a contracted 32 hours (about 83.1% of 38.5 hours), a full E6 entry wage of 3,552 EUR would come to roughly 2,951 EUR of base pay - a different calculation than any western German region, where the full-time basis is always 37.5 hours.
Source states \"32-40 Std.\" (an individually flexible weekly-hours range, not a single fixed full-time figure) with monthly tariff tables computed on a 38.5h/week basis specifically - confirmed via this region's own distinct Stundenteiler (167.5, vs the West's 163.1), which only reconciles against the published hourly column at a 38.5h basis. Genuinely different from every West region, not a copy-paste default (build brief Section 3's own explicit warning about eastern agreements).
The 2026-2028 settlement
Eastern Germany follows the national settlement on percentages: unchanged pay through end December 2026, then 2.1% in January 2027 and 2.4% in January 2028. No region-specific published table exists for Eastern Germany for these two steps; the calculator shows them as derived, built on the existing 38.5-hour structure.
Special payments
No independently confirmed source exists for Eastern Germany's own holiday pay or annual bonus, so the calculator shows Nordrhein's confirmed figures as the nationwide default pattern, scaled with your actual working hours like every other tariff figure. The nationwide Zukunftsbetrag (23% of a month's pay) applies regardless of the working-time structure and is available accordingly.
Eastern Germany compared with the western regions
The East-West gap in chemical-industry working time is well documented, and this calculator doesn't obscure it: western regions consistently define full-time as 37.5 hours, while Eastern Germany keeps a more flexible structure calculated on 38.5 hours. When comparing a move between East and West, look at the real working-time basis too, not just the table wage.
The annual view at a different working-time basis
Twelve monthly salaries at E6 entry level (3,552 EUR, calculated on a 38.5-hour basis) total an annual gross of 42,624 EUR in Eastern Germany. At E13 (6,736 EUR), that's 80,832 EUR a year.
At exactly 32 weekly hours (the lower end of the permitted range), the E6 annual total drops to roughly 35,419 EUR - a calculation that only works correctly on Eastern Germany's own 38.5-hour basis, not the western 37.5-hour one.
Frequently asked questions
Why is working time regulated differently in Eastern Germany than in the West?
The East-West gap in chemical-industry working time is historically rooted and well documented. This calculator reflects it directly rather than obscuring it: a 38.5-hour calculation basis instead of 37.5 hours, with its own divisor (167.5 instead of 163.1).
Can I work more than 38.5 hours as an employee in Eastern Germany?
Per the source, the permitted range runs from 32 to 40 weekly hours. Within that range, your actual base pay scales proportionally to your contracted hours, relative to the table's own 38.5-hour basis.
Who this page is for
This table applies to the Chemische Industrie Ostdeutschland bargaining region. Pay particular attention to the working-hours field in the interactive calculator, since 38.5 hours applies as the full-time basis here, not 37.5 as in every western German region.
Sources
- https://www.bavc.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/2492-pi-25-03-26 (BAVC press release - 2.1%/2.4% increases, Jan 2027/2028, agreement duration, 300 EUR/year demographic-fund contribution)
- https://igbce.de/igbce/chemie26-faq-zum-abschluss-269474 (IGBCE FAQ - Zukunftsbetrag 23% national framework confirmation, early-adoption option)
- WSI Tarifarchiv, Chemische Industrie workbook: https://www.wsi.de/data/p_ta_tarife_chemische_industrie_2026.xlsx (sheet "Ost | E", April-2025 wage step)