13 – Personnel Expenses and Employees

Personnel expenses

The BASF Group spent €10,659 million on wages and salaries, social security contributions and expenses for pensions and assistance in 2018 (2017: €10,610 million). This amount included personnel expenses from the disposal group for the oil and gas business in the amount of €276 million (2017: €268 million). The increase in personnel expenses is due primarily to the higher average number of employees resulting from the acquisition of significant parts of Bayer’s business and to the higher level of wages and salaries. Particularly the year-on-year higher release of provisions for the long-term incentive (LTI) program as well as currency effects had a countereffect.

Personnel expenses (Million €)

 


2018

2017

Wages and salaries

 

8,470

8,471

Social security contributions and assistance expenses

 

1,459

1,434

Pension expenses

 

730

705

Personnel expenses

 

10,659

10,610

Number of employees

As of December 31, 2018, the number of employees rose to 122,404 employees compared with 115,490 employees as of December 31, 2017. That includes 2,017 employees in the disposal group for the oil and gas business as of December 31, 2018 (December 31, 2017: 1,985 employees).

The increase in the number of employees is due primarily to the acquisition of significant businesses from Bayer in August 2018. As a result, the number of employees rose by more than 4,500 employees.

The number of employees in the BASF Group was distributed over the regions as follows:

Number of employees as of December 31

 

 

2018

2017

Europe

 

75,188

71,653

of which Germany

 

55,839

54,020

North America

 

20,069

18,295

Asia Pacific

 

19,303

18,256

South America, Africa, Middle East

 

7,844

7,286

BASF Group

 

122,404

115,490

of which apprentices and trainees

 

3,174

3,103

temporary staff

 

3,226

2,550

Employees from joint operations are included in the number of employees as of the year-end relative to BASF’s share in the company. These had a total of 526 employees (2017: 472 employees).

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

Average number of employees

 

 

2018

2017

Europe

 

73,067

71,043

of which Germany

 

54,749

53,390

North America

 

19,051

17,871

Asia Pacific

 

18,713

18,132

South America, Africa, Middle East

 

7,540

7,287

BASF Group

 

118,371

114,333

of which apprentices and trainees

 

2,819

2,793

temporary staff

 

3,120

2,691

Employees from joint operations are included in the average number of employees relative to BASF’s share in the company. On average, these had a total of 492 employees (2017: 437 employees).

BASF Group’s average number of employees for 2018 includes 2,021 employees from the disposal group for the oil and gas business (2017: 1,982 employees).