Dax course (symbolic photo)
Photo:
Daniel Roland / AFP
The CEOs of the companies listed in the Dax drew an average salary of 8.3 million euros in the past financial year.
The management consultancy HKP calculated this.
But who is the front runner and who is the bottom?
HKP didn't answer these popular questions this year.
A direct comparison of salaries is made more difficult by new European transparency rules.
In addition, a comparison with the average value of the previous year is not possible because the index was increased from 30 to 40 companies in September 2021.
This is disappointing, HKP criticizes the transparency rules themselves. Accordingly, there were no corresponding specifications to be able to compare key figures across companies.
With "significantly increased company-specific transparency", the comparability "both nationally and internationally has experienced a clear step backwards", complains Michael Kramarsch, partner at HKP.
For the 2021 financial year, a European directive meant that for the first time, companies were not required to publish information on the remuneration of the Management Board in the annual report, but at the latest as part of the invitation to the Annual General Meeting.
However, the current remuneration reports are characterized by "a large number of tables and graphics as well as text information," explained HKP further.
200 percent more tables
The number of tables rose by an average of 200 percent, and the remuneration reports in the last financial year were on average twice as long as in previous years.
The flood of information and the lack of standards on how this information is actually supposed to be obtained make it "dramatically" difficult to compare remuneration information.
According to the HKP, part of the new legal regulation is that the annual general meeting votes on the remuneration report every year.
According to the HKP, individual DAX companies obviously had difficulties with their investors: At Bayer, only 24 percent of investors voted for the report, at Continental it was 68 percent and at Beiersdorf 73 percent.
The relevant approval rate is 80 percent.
"Remuneration is a powerful lever in the hands of investors," said Kramarsh.
It was therefore "foreseeable" that the vote on the remuneration report would be used by investors "as an instrument to enforce other issues as well".
Very different companies were added to the Dax reform last late summer, such as the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the fashion retailer Zalando, the food delivery service Hello Fresh or the biotech company Qiagen.
mamk/AFP