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The only CEO in the Dax: Belen Garijo from the pharmaceutical company Merck
Photo: Bernd Hartung / Merck / dpa
When it comes to the proportion of women on DAX boards, men are still clearly overrepresented.
However, when it comes to the salary that is earned on Dax board members, women are clearly ahead - and can significantly expand their lead over men, as a new study by the EY auditors has shown.
The advantage of women in terms of salary has therefore grown by 150,000 to 550,000 euros in the past year.
In the 160 companies of the major stock market indices Dax, MDax, SDax, female board members in 2020 received an average direct remuneration of 2.31 million euros, while men received an average of 1.76 million euros.
Female executives received 8.2 percent more salaries than a year earlier, while the increase was only 1.6 percent for men.
The salaries of the CEOs are excluded because there are hardly any women in the top positions.
There is only one CEO in the Dax - Belen Garijo from the Darmstadt-based pharmaceutical company Merck.
With a salary of 6.3 million euros, she is considered the best-paid manager in Germany.
18 percent of the Dax board members are women
According to EY compensation expert Jens Massmann, the reason that top managers earn better than top managers is also because there aren't that many of them: "Highly qualified top managers currently have a good negotiating position."
Many companies have now introduced quotas for women on the board of directors and supervisory boards.
According to a new law, at least one woman must sit on the executive boards of listed companies with more than 2000 employees if the board consists of four or more members.
The quota is intended to help bring more women into management positions, but how it will affect the earnings of women on executive boards in the long term is unclear.
According to the study, 18 percent of the board members in the Dax were women at the end of last year, slightly more than at the end of 2019 (16.5 percent).
Across all indices it was only 13 percent.
For a long time, many listed companies did not have a female manager on their executive boards.
The US personnel consultancy Russell Reynolds had found in 2020 that the proportion of women is in poor shape, especially in up-and-coming, listed companies: "Newcomers in the Dax and MDax even regularly pull the proportion of women down."
In relation to all occupational groups and career levels, women continue to earn less than men overall.
The so-called adjusted gender pay gap, which indicates differences in salaries for comparable qualifications and activities, was recently around six percent.
apr / Reuters