Chief People Officer (CPO)
Chief People Officer salary data: P25, median, and P75 base pay, sourced.
Salary band
Base salary, gross annual
- 25th percentile
- €160,000
- Median
- €195,000
- 75th percentile
- €230,000
For reference: the statutory minimum wage in Germany has stood at €13.90 gross per hour since January 1, 2026 — roughly €2,410 gross a month for a full-time role at 40 hours/week. (BMAS: Mindestlohn steigt zum 1. Januar 2026 auf 13,90 Euro)
Variable at OTE€53,000 – €77,000
Gross fixed base salary per year for a Chief People Officer (CPO) or CHRO at the executive or board level of a larger German SMB or scale-up (roughly 500 to 2,000 employees), one step above the company-size ceiling typical of the Head of People level. A bonus or long-term-incentive component of roughly 40,000 to 80,000 euros on top of this fixed range is standard at this scale, bringing total compensation to roughly 200,000 to 310,000 euros; see the variable-comp figures below. Larger Mittelstand structures (2,000 to 10,000 employees) push base pay toward 250,000 to 400,000 euros, and DAX or MDAX board-level Personalvorstand pay (frequently seven figures) sits well outside the scope of this SMB-focused guide. Public salary-aggregator samples for board-level HR titles in Germany are thin because the role is rare; this range is anchored to an executive-search compensation breakdown rather than a large job-board sample.
Sources: Profiling Institut: CHRO Gehalt nach Unternehmensgröße; Kienbaum HR-Vergütungsstudie 2025