13 – Personnel expenses and employees

Personnel expenses

The BASF Group spent €10,165 million for wages and salaries, social security contributions and expenses for pensions and assistance in 2016 (2015: €9,982 million). This represented an increase in personnel expenses of 1.8%. This was particularly due to higher expenses for the long-term incentive (LTI) program in addition to wage and salary increases. Countering this was the lower average number of employees (2016: 111,975 employees; 2015: 113,249 employees) as well as currency effects.

Personnel expenses (million €)

 

 

2016

2015

Wages and salaries

 

8,170

7,943

Social security contributions and expenses for pensions and assistance

 

1,995

2,039

Thereof for pension benefits

 

627

658

Personnel expenses

 

10,165

9,982

Number of employees

As of December 31, 2016, the number of employees increased to 113,830 employees due to the acquisition of Chemetall compared with 112,435 employees as of December 31, 2015.

It was distributed over the regions as follows:

Number of employees as of December 31

 

 

2016

2015

Europe

 

70,784

70,079

Thereof Germany

 

53,318

52,837

North America

 

17,583

17,471

Asia Pacific

 

18,156

17,562

South America, Africa, Middle East

 

7,307

7,323

BASF Group

 

113,830

112,435

Thereof apprentices and trainees

 

3,120

3,240

temporary staff

 

2,334

2,294

Employees from joint operations are included in the number of employees at year end relative to BASF’s share in the respective company. In total, this included 432 employees in 2016 (2015: 392 employees).

The average number of employees was distributed over the regions as follows:

Average number of employees

 

 

2016

2015

Europe

 

69,873

70,922

Thereof Germany

 

52,608

52,987

North America

 

17,308

17,342

Asia Pacific

 

17,473

17,428

South America, Africa, Middle East

 

7,321

7,557

BASF Group

 

111,975

113,249

Thereof apprentices and trainees

 

2,838

2,942

temporary staff

 

2,365

2,574

Employees from joint operations are included in the average number of employees relative to BASF’s share in the company. This comprised a total of 404 employees (2015: 398 employees).