13 – Personnel expenses and employees Personnel expenses The BASF Group spent €10,610 million on wages and salaries, social security contributions and expenses for pensions and assistance in 2017 (2016: €10,165 million). This represented an increase in personnel expenses of 4.4%. Besides wage and salary increases, this was particularly due to an increase in the average number of employees due to the acquisition of Chemetall. Countering this were the partial reversal of provisions for the Long Term Incentive (LTI) program as well as currency effects. (XLS:) Download Personnel expenses (million €) 2017 2016 Wages and salaries 8,471 8,170 Social security contributions and expenses for pensions and assistance 2,139 1,995 Thereof for pension benefits 705 627 Personnel expenses 10,610 10,165 Number of employees As of December 31, 2017, the number of employees rose to 115,490 employees compared with 113,830 employees as of December 31, 2016. It was distributed over the regions as follows: (XLS:) Download Number of employees as of December 31 2017 2016 Europe 71,653 70,784 Thereof Germany 54,020 53,318 North America 18,295 17,583 Asia Pacific 18,256 18,156 South America, Africa, Middle East 7,286 7,307 BASF Group 115,490 113,830 Thereof apprentices and trainees 3,103 3,120 temporary staff 2,550 2,334 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 472 employees in 2017 (2016: 432 employees). The average number of employees was distributed over the regions as follows: (XLS:) Download Average number of employees 2017 2016 Europe 71,043 69,873 Thereof Germany 53,390 52,608 North America 17,871 17,308 Asia Pacific 18,132 17,473 South America, Africa, Middle East 7,287 7,321 BASF Group 114,333 111,975 Thereof apprentices and trainees 2,793 2,838 temporary staff 2,691 2,365 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 437 employees (2016: 404 employees). back next
