After a decline in 2022, board salaries in Germany’s largest listed companies rose again in 2023. The average compensation per board member in the 40 DAX companies rose by 5.8 percent, according to a study by the German Association for the Protection of Securities Ownership (DSW). On average, the top managers each received around 3.6 million euros.
VolkswagenAccording to DSW, boss Oliver Blume breaks the “sound barrier” of ten million euros; he was last year with 10.3 million euros including his salary Porsche-Head of the top earners, as the DSW determined. Björn Gulden from the sporting goods manufacturer is in second place Adidas with 9.2 million euros. Third place goes to Christian Sewing from Deutsche Bank, who received 9.0 million euros.
With his dual mandate at Volkswagen and Porsche, Blume is a “special case”. Nevertheless, the DSW sees ten million euros as “an established cap in the social debate,” as managing director Marc Tüngler said on Tuesday. This limit is also the maximum earnings in many DAX companies.
Board members earn 40 times as much as their employees
The so-called personnel expenses per employee exceeded the executive board’s compensation by a factor of 40 last year. In 2022 it was 39, and in 2021 it was even 52. The DSW worked with the Technical University of Munich for the study.
According to the study, the members of the board of directors of the pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck received the most overall at 6.7 million euros, followed by the board members of Deutsche Bank with 6.6 million euros. The pharmaceutical supplier Sartorius paid the lowest salary at 1.3 million euros.
The study also shows that male board members earn on average around 22.6 percent more than their female colleagues. One explanation for this is that women chair the board significantly less often than men. But even when it comes to average salaries without the chairmen, the difference is still “significant” at 12.1 percent, according to DSW. The men on the board earn an average of a good 3.4 million euros, while women earn just under 3.1 million euros.
Top managers earn even more abroad
In international comparison, companies’ salaries are often higher, according to the DSW: in the largest listed companies in Switzerland, the average salary is 7.6 million euros, in France it is 6.9 million euros. The average remuneration of almost 6.9 million euros paid in the EuroStoxx 50 without including German companies is also clearly above the salary level in the Dax.
The pay in the USA is even more generous. On average, managers there earned around 24.2 million euros last year. According to DSW, the highest earner of all the indices examined is Tim Cook from Apple with the equivalent of a good 58.4 million euros – in 2022 he even received a good 94.5 million euros. The highest salary in Europe in 2023 was received by the CEO of the French software developer Dassault Systèmes, Bernard Charlès, at 46.7 million euros.