How much does an assistant earn?
Assistants relieve managers, teams and specialist departments in day-to-day office work: coordinating appointments and travel, handling correspondence and minutes, maintaining documents and systems, and preparing projects and alignments. Entry is often via the dual apprenticeship as an office management clerk (Kaufmann/-frau für Büromanagement), related commercial training, school-based assistant programmes or a career change with strong office and organisational skills. Gross pay depends on region, sector, collective agreements, hierarchy level (e.g. team, department or executive assistance) and breadth of duties. As a guide, qualified assistants in Germany in 2026 often earn about €2,850–€3,500 gross per month; in training around €940–€1,240 is typical.
Salary by region (gross/month)
Guide figures as of 2026. The training column refers to dual or school-based programmes in office and assistant work (e.g. office management clerk, office assistant) or comparable entry routes and retraining; qualified means practising assistants. Actual pay depends on collective agreements, sector, hierarchy level, employer, region and experience and is not a guarantee.
Further training options
Job and everyday work
Assistants are the organisational interface in the office: they keep appointments, information and workflows together and relieve managers and specialist teams. Everyday work combines communication, care and digital office tasks – often with shifting priorities, confidentiality and close coordination.
- Plan appointments, meetings and travel, align calendars and prepare participants and documents.
- Draft correspondence, minutes and presentations, and process incoming post and e-mail in a structured way.
- Maintain documents, filing and digital systems; track deadlines, follow-ups and to-dos.
- Support projects and alignments organisationally: collect status updates, bundle documents and manage follow-ups.
- Communicate with internal and external contacts and pass on information confidentially and clearly.
- Reliably handle office routines, visitor management and organisational tasks, and flag bottlenecks early.
