Tesla salary too low: lack of employees for Gigafactory Berlin

The Tesla Gigafactory near Berlin is short of employees. The reason: Tesla pays salaries that are too low. Compared to the same jobs at other German carmakers, Elon Musk’s company pays around 20 percent less on average.

Tesla salary for Gigafactory Berlin 20 percent too low

Tesla lacks employees, even months after the opening of the Gigafactory Berlin. That, it says, is the main reason it is currently well behind its target schedule. Reports the news agency Reuters.

According to the report, this was confirmed by Birgit Dietze, a regional representative of the metal industry union for Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony. Tesla plans to employ about 12,000 people in Grünheide, near Berlin, by the end of the year, she said. “To achieve this goal, the management must soon increase salaries,” Dietze said.

Qualified personnel earn about 20 percent more for the same position at other automakers, he said. Skilled workers are interested in changing jobs in principle, he said, but not if it involves a drastic reduction in wages.

Salary adjustments indispensable

In addition, in order to attract new talent, Tesla has already begun promising higher salaries, he said. According to IG Metall, this is leading to resentment among those who have already been employed at Gigafactory Berlin for some time, and thus to unrest within the workforce.

These differences in salaries that Tesla is offering would only get bigger if American automakers have to raise their paychecks across the board soon. Tesla had not officially commented on the news so far.

But it’s also clear that if Tesla’s salary is 20 percent lower than other automakers, a switch isn’t necessarily particularly attractive to new employees.

Just recently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk re-introduced a 40-hour office presence under threat of layoffs. In April 2022, there was also an environmental incident due to spilled liquid at the Tesla Gigafactory Grünheide, which slightly endangered the water quality in the surrounding area.