East Germany wealth gap remains wider than job gap

But the wealth gap remains stark. Median disposable income in the eastern states, including Berlin, reached about 92% of western levels in 2024, or roughly 25,900 euros versus 28,100 euros. Median gross annual pay for full-time workers in 2025 was 46,013 euros in the east, excluding Berlin, compared with 55,435 euros in the west.

Household net assets tell a different story. Average wealth in the east rose to 125,500 euros in 2023 from 61,200 euros a decade earlier, but western households still held 257,100 euros on average. That leaves eastern households with just under half — about 49% — of western wealth, a gap of roughly 132,000 euros per household.

That gap matters economically because wealth, not wages alone, drives resilience. Lower homeownership, thinner financial buffers and less investment income can keep eastern consumption more cautious even as incomes converge. Cheaper rents in states such as Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, where housing costs run about 30% to 40% below the national average, soften but do not erase the divide.

The imbalance is also feeding politics. Some eastern Germans still see themselves as citizens “of second class,” and those grievances have helped fuel support for the far-right Alternative for Germany, which is looking to build on recent state election gains in the east.

For investors, the story is less about a single trade than about Germany’s long-term internal demand map. A poorer, older and shrinking eastern labor pool means weaker private investment and less catch-up growth, with Ifo saying eastern companies invest about a quarter less per worker than western firms. That keeps pressure on wages, local consumption and property markets, while reinforcing the west’s lead in capital formation.

The east-west convergence in jobs and income is real, but the wealth divide is proving far more durable. Unless investment, migration patterns and productivity improve, the gap is likely to remain a structural feature of Germany’s economy — and a political one — for years to come.