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).