Moving to Germany - why?

 

 

This page summarises the main differences in standard of living and everyday life between the US and Germany. There is also a page on German mentality and etiquette which you may find useful.

 

Work

  • At least four (usually six) weeks of paid holidays in Germany (and you usually get a stern talking to if you don’t take them). Honestly, for this reason alone moving to the US with their two weeks of holiday a year is almost inconceivable.
  • “Unlimited” sick days. When I first heard that in the US you are only allowed to be sick for a limited number of days per year my mind boggled. Here, if you’re sick, you stay home until you get better. You get 100% paid during the first six weeks, 70% after that.
  • Strong employee protections. That means that not only is it very hard to fire you, but the law also protects you from unjustified demands by your employer (you are guaranteed mandatory breaks, overtime pay, holidays (where you are allowed to turn off your work laptop!), maximum hours worked per day and week, etc). This translates to fewer hours worked per year on average (1,360 in Germany vs 1,780 in the US, which translates to about eight hours a week more)
  • In some companies you will likely have very little leeway in negotiating your salary, as it’s probably fixed by a collective bargaining agreement between the employer and the unions. In 2014, roughly 45% of the employees in Germany worked in businesses bound by collective agreements. Conversely, this also makes the labour market much less dynamic - you will be changing employers far less frequently, and companies are cautious when hiring as, once hired, it’s a lot of hassle to fire someone. This also means that certain kinds of work (industries that rely on quick turnaround, hiring top talent and working them until they drop to produce impressive results) just aren’t as prevalent here as they are in the US.
  • Higher taxes (in addition to lower gross pay); as a highly qualified professional you will easily be in the top (42% marginal rate) income tax bracket, and when you add mandatory retirement, unemployment, and health insurance, your net salary is around half of your gross salary. Germans don’t mind paying this much in tax, but if you’re used to much lower taxes it can be a shock. Additionally, a few significant American tax deductions (notably the home mortgage tax deduction) don’t exist in Germany.
  • A strong social safety net. Every employee and employer must pay into insurances which compensate and help people who are too ill to work or lose their job. For those in dire financial straits, the government pays their rent and gives them low but indefinite (although attached to conditions, e.g. actively looking for work) unemployment benefits that prevent people from becoming destitute.

Health

  • Health insurance is universal, much more affordable than in the United States, and covers most medical expenses with minimal fuss. Dental problems are something of an exception and are covered, but only if they are medically necessary. You will get a standard fix, but things like general anesthetic or better seals cost extra. There are some additional insurances for this. Glasses are also expensive, since they are only covered if you are +- 6,25 Dioptire (+- 4,25 Dioptrie in special cases) or more.
  • As everyone has health insurance (by law) and co-pays and deductibles are negligible (with the exception of some more “optional” treatments, such as higher-grade tooth fillings), medical costs cease being something you worry about. Your health insurance premiums are automatically deducted from your salary (so this is money you never “see”), and you almost never have to worry about medical emergency causing you financial hardship.

Education and children

  • Free, high quality schooling for your children that’s not dependent on local property taxes (so the gap between a “good” school and a “bad” school is much much smaller than in the US). Private schools are a marginal part of the education system, so you won’t need to fret about earning enough money to send your kids to a “good” school.
  • Good, low-cost (almost free) tertiary education. You won’t need to save money from the moment they are born to send your child to college, and this alone can easily save you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  • Robust and high-quality non-university education paths for vocational and non-academic training and qualification, including apprenticeship systems. This means that children have more options for careers if university doesn’t suit them.
  • Working parents get paid sick days if their children are sick (which do not come out of their paid holidays)
  • Parents get up to three years each of parental leave after a birth, 15.5 months of which are paid (the paid leave is split between the parents).
  • Children tend to be more independent, and will (for example) walk, cycle, or take public transport to school or to see their friends by themselves much earlier than in the US. This means that parents don’t have to play taxi driver as much.

Finances

  • On the one hand, bank transfers are easy and free, reducing the reliance on third-party transfer services. On the other hand, modern payment methods such as contactless payments (and cashless payments in general) are still nowhere as widespread in Germany as in the US.
  • Fewer lucrative retirement accounts (with corresponding tax breaks) when compared to the US. While nearly all Germans get a state pension, it’s usually not enough to retire on, and the options for employees saving for retirement are not that great.

Daily life

  • (Usually - it depends on where you live) much better public transport and more compact cities, reducing your reliance on the car for commuting or running errands. Many children will take buses, trains or bicycles to school and (once they’re older) to their various after-school activities. While many Germans own cars, public transport in urban areas is usually so good that people are not forced to drive everywhere (unlike in the US).
  • Cities are much more compact (and therefore walkable or bikeable), and land use tends to be more efficient and mixed-use. This means that, for example, shops are often scattered throughout residential areas, instead of being in enormous out-of-town malls which are only reachable by car.
  • Religion is seen as a private matter in Germany. Most people don’t care what you believe (or whether you believe anything at all), as long as you don’t make a big deal of it. Conversely, unlike in the US, there isn’t the unspoken assumption that everyone follows the same (usually Protestant Christian) religion.
  • Petrol (gasoline) is a fair bit more expensive in Germany (in mid 2021, it was about twice as expensive), which leads people to drive much less. Most cars also have a manual transmission.
  • Lower Gini coefficient; essentially, the gap between the “poor” and the “wealthy” is lower. For someone on a well-paying white-collar job (e.g. a mid-career engineer), the gap between your standard of living and that of someone on minimum income won’t be as great. You won’t be living in a six-bedroom ranch house with an acre of manicured lawns and three expensive cars in the garage - Germans would argue that you don’t need these things, but coming from the US this could require some adjustment.
  • Much less empty nature. We have a much higher population density than the US; if your main way to relax is to hike in the Rockies for a week and not see another soul, then I’m afraid you won’t be able to do that here. We have plenty of beautiful nature, it’s just nowhere near as “vast” and “unspoiled” as in the American West. Conversely, no American city can hold a candle to the history of a city like Paris, London, Vienna, Prague, or Rome, so you’ll get something in return for giving up Yosemite.
  • In general, there are fewer hours of sunshine in Germany than in the US. The Gulf Stream masks how far north Germany is - Hamburg is at 53°N, which is about the same latitude as the southern tip of Alaska. Munich is at 48°N, the same latitude as Seattle or Newfoundland. The Gulf Stream makes up for it in terms of temperature, but if you live in northern Germany it still means a sunset at 4 in the afternoon in wintertime.
  • Electronics tend to be more expensive than in the US.
  • Germans eat out far less than in the US, which also translates to a lower variety of restaurants (particularly more “casual” restaurants).
  • Germany doesn’t have a “culture of convenience”, unlike the US. For example, shops are almost never open 24 hours a day, and never on Sundays. In Germany you will almost never find people who are employed solely to assist customers (e.g. people to greet you or pack your bags in a supermarket, people who direct cars in parking lots), and therefore you need to do these things yourself. Cashiers and other customer-facing employees don’t have to smile and be overly friendly, as it’s seen as fake. Some American immigrants report that it takes a more “planning” and “thinking” to get through the day than in the US - at least in the beginning - as there isn’t an army of (badly paid) people to do your little chores for you.
  • Due to a greatly lower violent crime rate (the violent crime rate in the US is a whopping five times higher than in Germany), Germans don’t have to be subconsciously thinking about their safety as much as people in the US. You can walk home by yourself after dark pretty much everywhere in Germany with no worries. The risk of your children being shot at school, the chance you’ll be injured in a mugging, shot by a police officer at a traffic stop, or injured by a burglar, is all essentially zero. Whether you’re “safe” just isn’t something people in Germany think about, it’s just a given.

Reddit threads

For more points of view, here are some threads on /r/germany discussing the differences in daily life:

Vlogs

There are a bunch of YouTubers who have immigrated to Germany and who post videos about their daily life, often with a lot of comparisons to life in their home countries. If you like consuming video content then you may find these an interesting source on immigrants’ perspectives in Germany.