What Salary Does A Product Manager Earn?

Product manager is a job that is in high demand, but what salary can you expect to earn if you pursue this career path? The answer is highly dependent on the industry and the design of the area of responsibility. This is because many people – even in the respective companies – are not always clear about what a product manager does in the first place.

What Does A Product Manager Get Salary For?

Before we talk about the salary of a product manager, let’s first talk about his or her tasks. In principle, a product manager assumes holistic responsibility for a product or product group. Product management can be divided into three core areas. In some companies a product manager covers all areas, in other companies only a sub-area. These three areas are:

• Strategic product management: This includes market environment and internal analyses. Broadly speaking, it involves finding out what problems customers have and what type of product can best solve them. Strategic market positioning is also part of this.
• Technical product management: As a product owner, a product manager represents the technical interests of customers in product development. He can take over the project management himself or be part of the project team. He ensures that the cost specifications for the product are met and that the product fulfills the requirements.
• Product marketing: The product manager provides operational support for the market launch, is responsible for change management, defines the marketing strategy and prepares product information for the website, data sheets and other marketing measures.

Product Manager: A Wide Salary Range

The average salary of a product manager in Germany is around 71,000 euros per year. Half of all product managers earn between 62,500 and 81,500 euros. However, this also means that there are still many product managers whose salary is lower or higher. An important factor for the salary classification of product managers is their professional experience. If this is less than three years, the product manager’s salary is less than 58,000 euros. However, if it exceeds nine years, then you can expect a salary of more than 82,000 euros as a product manager.

Product Manager Salary By State

The top three federal states with the highest salaries for product managers are Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Hamburg. Here you earn just under 77,000 euros (He, BW) and around 75,500 euros (HH) on average. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with 54,800 euros and Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg with just over 56,500 euros each are in the lower ranks. North Rhine-Westphalia is closest to the national average at around 72,000 euros.

Salary Of Product Managers By Company Size

Not surprisingly, product managers earn more in large companies than in small ones. One of the reasons for this is that in large companies there is greater responsibility associated with a product, because there are higher budgets and sales behind it.

• In companies with over 20,000 employees, the product manager earns around 85,000 euros on average.
• In companies with 1,000 to 20,000 employees, the average is around 78,000 euros.
• In companies between 100 and 1,000 employees, you can expect to earn about 71,000 euros.
• In small companies with fewer than 100 employees, the salary for a product manager is just under 62,000 euros.

Which Industries Earn Best?

You can expect the highest salaries for product managers in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. You can also expect good salaries in the consumer goods, automotive, electrical engineering and banking sectors. You should set your expectations significantly lower in the service sector or in retail.

Responsible Job With Good Salary Prospects

Overall, it is possible to earn good money as a product manager. However, there is no classic training path for this job description. Often, people slide into these positions in the respective companies who have previously gained relevant experience in related technical or marketing areas. A product manager needs both technical and business understanding, and this is usually reflected in the salary.