That salaryThe gap between board members and average employees is widening: The top managers of German stock exchangenheavyweights have benefited from the good development of their groups after the corona crisis benefits. On average, board salaries rose by 24 percent in the previous year. The executives of the 40 dax-Companies including the CEOs received an average of 3.9 million euros last year, according to the evaluation published on Wednesday by the German Protection Association for Securities Ownership (DSW) and the Technical University of Munich.
The gap to their average employees increased 53-fold. In 2020 it was 47 times.
“The salary increase was driven by the explosion in profits in the past fiscal year,” explained scientist Gunther Friedl from the Technical University of Munich. The gap to the average salary of their employees has remained relatively constant over the past ten years. “We are now seeing a significant increase by a factor of 53.”
Dax companies will generate record profits in 2021
After a slump in profits in the Corona crisis year 2020, in which some board members had waived part of their fixed salary, the 40 companies in the top German stock exchange league are reported to be generating record profits overall in 2021. Operating profit increased by 122 percent to a total of around 169.9 billion euros.
19 million euros a year for Linde boss Angel
According to the evaluation, the top earner in the Dax was Linde boss Steve Angel (66) with 19 million euros. Since the merger with US competitor Praxair, Linde has been operationally managed from the US. The VW boss who left this year Herbert Diess (63) came second with 12 million, followed by SAP-Lenker Christian Klein (42) with 9 million euros. This includes the fixed salary as well as short and long-term variable remuneration, which is linked to the company’s success, among other things.
On average, the CEOs of the DAX companies received EUR 6.1 million, significantly more than the other members of the executive committee, whose average remuneration last year was EUR 3.5 million. Women are comparatively rarely represented in the top tier of the 40 stock market heavyweights, at 20 percent, but they earn an average of 3.6 million euros more than their colleagues with 3.5 million euros.
There are various studies on executive board remuneration, the results of which sometimes differ from one another due to different calculation methods. The DSW has been presenting the evaluation regularly since 2000. The comparison took into account the expansion of the Dax last September from 30 to 40 companies.