Wait with the building application because of the child construction allowance

I know 2 people with an annual income over 70k, and many with under 40k, including academics. I am in between and unusually well paid in my industry, my former fellow students are rather around 40

I can absolutely confirm that for Leipzig. Exceptions are Porsche + BMW and the chemical industry in the area (DOW, Linde, etc.)... That doesn't come as a surprise. Most jobs are created in the service sector (Amazon, DHL), which is rather not so well paid... I paid a nice five-digit amount for my plot of land with just over 1000m². Travel time to the city center by car or train is under 30 minutes... There are traffic jams sometimes but still manageable. It will get interesting if the population really moves towards 700k in the future... Well...

Apparently you live in a different country than I do

Hehe... probably not
But as you yourself write “…those I know…”
And you simply do not know the average of the country.

Maybe you know the average of your employer/collective agreement/colleague circle/department/friends and acquaintances circle...
And that is simply not the average in the country. If you look closely, your known selection doesn't count at all, it is so small in comparison.

And as we all know: paper and the internet are patient and not up-to-date.

All academics I know started in E13 after their university diploma or master's degree. That is also what scientific staff at universities earn; I myself had that for one year after my diploma. My first employment contract. In my opinion, E9 may be relevant for bachelor's degree holders. In that respect, of course there are lower salaries. Less is always possible. But here it was not about entry-level salaries, but rather about average salaries for academics, and the tariffs I mentioned certainly reflect reality. Always keep in mind that there is still a lot of room for improvement, even within the collective agreement area.

The fact is that very few companies still pay according to the IG Metall tariff. This includes the large car manufacturers and a few major suppliers. The rest cannot afford to pay according to the tariff because IG Metall enforces such high wages that others have to tighten their belts.

It's logical, don't you think Porsche or Daimler give up part of their profit because of wage increases demanded by the union? No, they pressure the prices with their suppliers and service providers. These, in turn, pass it on to the employees. That means the gap in salaries is getting wider and wider due to this outrageous IG Metall.

What is happening here at the moment is simply outrageous. Graduates with excellent resumes and certificates apply with us, and they have been waiting for a job for months. If I were to apply today with my diploma graded "good" (2), I wouldn't have a position in a year.

The fact is that very few companies still pay according to the IG Metall collective agreement.

What matters is not how many companies pay according to the collective agreement, but how many employees are paid according to it. In the manufacturing industry, that is still 45%, so not "very few".

The conclusion that other companies "have to save" because IG Metall achieves high agreements is far-fetched. On the one hand, there are many employees who earn more without collective agreement coverage. On the other hand, the agreements of recent years have always been at 2.x%, which was urgently needed after many years of stagnation. By the way, Goldman Sachs just recently recommended raising wages by 9%.

What is happening here at the moment is just an outrage. Graduates with excellent resumes and certificates are applying with us, they have been waiting for a job for months.

That does not at all correspond with my observations in power plant construction.

: I agree with you there. I myself have tried to find something new and also colleagues, even as an engineer (supposedly it's counted as a shortage of skilled workers) you can hardly get a job in such a big city! It is really very difficult. At our company in Hesse, diploma engineers were classified with E11, PhD chemists with E12, how bachelors are classified now I unfortunately don't know.

In Hesse, you get plots of land at such a price that it makes you feel sick, if you are even lucky enough to get one. Even 70,000€ is not enough for that....

Well, what can you say here in the East... in the 2 metropolitan areas where you can live well, the costs for building land, construction, and general living expenses are higher than in large parts of the West. But the salaries are significantly lower. 70,000 for a plot of land, that would be quite a bargain indeed.