D The salary gap in Germany’s top corporations has increased in the past year. The executives of the 30 Dax companies earned an average of 52 times as much as their employees, as a study published on Thursday in Frankfurt by the German Association for the Protection of Securities ( DSW ) and the Technical University of Munich. On average, a board member earned 3.6 million euros. The year before, the top executives had collected 50 times as much as their employees.
According to the figures, the overall remuneration of the DAX executive board increased on average by 4.5 percent in view of bubbling profits. By contrast, gross wages and salaries in Germany have grown by only 2.5 percent. “The trend of the two previous years has turned this way,” explained the Munich scientist Gunther Friedl.
As in the previous year, the leader is currently the most valuable German company SAP , With an average of 5.7 million euros per top manager, the compensation paid to the software company was slightly higher than that of Volkswagen. The executives of the car manufacturer collected the information according to an average of 5.6 million euros. In some DAX companies, however, the managers had to settle for far less than the year before. These included Deutsche Börse, insurance giant Munich Re and Bayer.
SAP, VW and Daimler boss at the top
Friedl described the total remuneration as appropriate. He referred to the responsibility of the top managers for an average of more than 100,000 employees and often many times with the suppliers.
The best-paid company leader was according to calculations again SAP boss Bill McDermott with 12.9 million euros. In second place was therefore the relieved in the spring VW CEO Matthias Müller (10.1 million). Third was Harald Krüger of BMW (8.4 million), followed by Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche (7.8 million) “A quite surprising result, if one looks at the current problems of the industry,” said DSW CEO Marc Tüngler loud Speech text with a view to the car maker and the diesel exhaust scandal.
On average, the chief executives of the German stock market heavyweights reportedly received 5.8 million euros. This was significantly more than the average remuneration of its Executive Board colleagues of 3.2 million euros.
Board members should organize their retirement plans themselves
Salary differences also exist between women and men in the top floor. Male board members earned an average of 3.7 million euros in 2017, significantly more than their colleagues, who came to 3.0 million euros. Friedl attributed the difference above all to the different functions. For example, there is still no single woman at the top of the DAX companies.
According to recent calculations by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung’s Institute for Employee Participation and Management (IMU), a board earned an average of 71 times as much as its employees on average in 2017.
However, there are various calculation methods, such as the variable components that are paid out with delay, which are linked to the company’s success. In addition, the IMU took into account the pension entitlements of managers and employees.
Tüngler demanded that board members organize their own pension plans. “The one-sided burden on companies through intransparent and extensive pension commitments is no longer part of the repertoire of modern remuneration systems.”