ADVERTISEMENTWages vary considerably according to sectors and professions in Europe. While a number of jobs disappear, new ones are also emerging. Certain roles, such as those of health care, continue to be essential.
So, what sectors offer the largest salary in Europe? And what are the most paid jobs? Exploring these questions can help when choosing a career – although wages are not everyone’s main engine.
Euronews Business analyzes the best remunerated roles in Europe, using the data shared by the global hiring platform with our journalists.
The analysis covers four countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Netherlands) and salary data reflect the annual income from May 2024 to April 2025. The occupation “doctors and surgeons” is excluded from the main data, provoking a separate analysis.
1. Medical and dental professions dominate
Medical consultants, radiologists, medical directors, orthodontists and dentists are constantly among the best paid roles in all countries. These jobs appear in categories, in particular: medical technician, medical information, nursing and dental care.
This is particularly true in the United Kingdom, where almost half of the 20 best paid jobs are under these hooks. In France, three of the best top -paying jobs are also in these categories – in particular dental roles.
2. Executive and management roles remain very rewarded
Titles such as the Director General, the Director of Strategy, the Project Director and the Director of Technology are well paid in all countries. These positions are found in sectors such as sales, banks and finance, technology and general management, which indicates that leadership roles tend to have premium remuneration in many industries.
3. Technology and IT professionals see solid wages
The roles in the development of software, the design and documentation of information, and IT operations – such as the software engineer, the data engineer and the SAP consultant – are well remunerated, in particular in Germany and the Netherlands.
4. Sales and business development offer high remuneration packages
Although entry -level sales roles are less lucrative, senior roles such as sales director, sales manager and corporate accounts display high gain potential. These roles are often delivered with large compensation packages in Germany and the Netherlands, where experienced sales professionals can gain wages comparable to those observed in technological or management roles.
5. The legal, tax and financial roles are solid suitors
Posts such as the tax director, the lawyer for labor law (or a employment lawyer) and the financial controller are constantly remunerated, in particular in Germany and in the United Kingdom. These roles fall under legal, accounting and banking and financing categories and reward deep regulatory or financial expertise.
How to stay competitive on the job market?
Professional skills are constantly evolving, in particular with technological progress.
“Continuous learning is essential in a rapidly evolving market,” told Euronews Business Pawel Adjan, director of economic research at Euronews Business. “As was the case with all the previous cases of technological innovations, professionals who are proactively learning new tools, platforms and methodologies will be positioned more competitively to work most effectively with emerging technologies.”
Best paid jobs in Germany
In Germany, corporate tax advisers receive the highest annual median salary at € 145,000. The graph also displays average wages for comparison.
Various sales roles, such as the director general and the sales manager, follow closely, with median profits ranging from € 107,500 to € 138,243.
A lawyer in labor law earns € 105,000, while a lawyer receives € 93,334.
System Applications Product Consultants (SAP) earn just below the € 100,000 threshold, engineers in the senior system are closed at € 95,000.
Other technological roles such as the IT security specialist and the Technical Consultant SAP are around € 90,000.
In the management category, administrators also earn around € 90,000. There is only one listed medical title – dentists – earning a median salary of nearly € 86,000.
Dentists dominate as high employees in France
In France, dentists are at the top of the list with the highest annual median salary at € 95,000, followed by orthodontists earning € 78,750. In the technology sector, network architects receive € 72,361, while medical technicians in the health care area earns € 70,000.
A production agent in production and manufacturing earns € 67,500. Roles such as the domain manager and the sales agent follow, with wages of around € 65,000 and € 64,855 respectively.
The consultant in digital transformation and the mechanical designer earn € 62,750 and € 62,500.
Several positions report identical median wages of € 60,000, including the engineering director, the real estate seller, the operations director, the sales representative, the production director, the human resources director, the Cloud Archite (Cloud IT Professional) and the counselor of the loan broker.
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The health professions dominate the upper end of the British salary spectrum, with nine of the 20 top remunerated roles in this sector.
In the United Kingdom, models are at the top of the list with an annual median salary striking € 166,390 (£ 140,000).
They are followed by medical consultants, winning € 145,821 (£ 111,412). Medical directors and radiologists both earn € 137,566.
The other high employees in the health care sector include orthodontists (€ 130,767), clinical consultants (€ 125,392), nursing chiefs (€ 124,793) and clinical directors (€ 109,442).
Associated dentists (€ 116,785) and periodontists (€ 113,808) are also among the best employees. In Sterling, their annual wages vary from £ 96,000 to £ 116,000.
The senior managers and technical roles are also in place: project directors earn € 122,528, directors of € 121,821 technology and microbiologists of € 121,313.
Management, accounting and software development in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, roles in the management, accounting and software development are among the best paid.
The general directors lead with an annual median salary of € 115,000.
The other most paid roles include corporate controllers (€ 80,000), team leaders (€ 78,206) and engineers (€ 75,208).
Financial roles and financial controllers also work well, gaining between € 72,500 and € 75,816.
Salaries in sales and technology stations tend to regroup between € 56,500 and € 66,000, with roles such as sales director, software engineer, data analyst and account frame that all come from this range.
Is a high-level university degree necessary?
“Participation in a leading university can certainly influence employment prospects and wage potential, especially in countries like France or the United Kingdom,” said Pawel Adrjan.
He noted that the elite diploma of educational establishments as grandes écoles and universities with a long history can be perceived as a signal of capacity on the labor market.
“However, the recent trends that we observe in the United Kingdom and France show that formal education requirements in job offers become less common, especially in high fields such as IT and data science, suggesting a progressive change towards skills-based hiring,” he added.
The best paid jobs of the future: what sectors will be lucrative?
While jobs continue to evolve, it is quite natural that the best remunerated roles also change.
“Over the next 5 to 10 years, we plan that green energy, AI / GENAI, cybersecurity and biotechnology will produce new lightest employment titles,” said Adjan.
He explained that roles such as AI ethics, key sustainable roles, Genai engineers and climate data analysts gain ground and should move to higher wage levels as the demand for expertise specialized in these areas increases.