Hamburg Labor Costs Hit €49.41 an Hour, €13 Above Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Wiesbaden – November 05, 2026 -- German employers paid €49.41 per hour worked in Hamburg in 2024, the highest of any federal state and €13.01 more than in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the figure was €36.40, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The national average was €44.32 per hour.
Eastern states and Schleswig-Holstein stay below €40 an hour
Destatis groups the 16 states into three tiers with similar labor costs. The lowest tier comprises the eastern non-city states and Schleswig-Holstein, with costs between €36.40 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and €39.95 in Schleswig-Holstein. Saxony-Anhalt was the second-cheapest state at €36.53.
A middle tier of Saarland, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate ranged from €42.53 in Saarland to €44.15 in Rhineland-Palatinate.