28 – Personnel Expenses and Employees
Personnel expenses
The BASF Group’s expenses for wages and salaries, social security contributions and pensions and assistance in 2020 totaled €10,576 million (2019: €10,924 million). This amount included proportional personnel expenses for 2020 from the disposal group for the construction chemicals business in the amount of €291 million. In 2019, personnel expenses from the disposal groups for the construction chemicals business and proportionally for the oil and gas business totaled €557 million. The decrease in personnel expenses was primarily due to lower bonus provisions and the lower average number of employees which resulted, in particular, from the divestiture of the construction chemicals business. A higher wage and salary level as well as higher pension expenses because of increased service costs had an offsetting effect.
|
2020 |
2019 |
|---|---|---|
Wages and salaries |
8,416 |
8,825 |
Social security contributions and assistance expenses |
1,424 |
1,545 |
Pension expenses |
736 |
554 |
Personnel expenses |
10,576 |
10,924 |
Number of employees
As of December 31, 2020, the number of employees decreased to 110,302 employees compared with 117,628 employees as of December 31, 2019. The decrease was due primarily to the sale of the construction chemicals business, which affected around 7,500 employees. An offsetting factor was the acquisition of Solvay’s polyamide business due to which the BASF Group’s number of employees rose by around 1,200 people – including the employees of the Butachimie SNC and Alsachimie S.A.S. joint operations, both in Chalampé, France – which were counted on a pro rata basis.
As of December 31, 2020, a total of 1,137 employees (2019: 96 employees) worked at joint operations. The rise was mainly due to additions related to the aforementioned acquisition of Solvay’s polyamide business.
The development of the number of employees was distributed over the regions as follows:
|
2020 |
2019 |
|---|---|---|
Europe |
68,849 |
72,153 |
of which Germany |
51,961 |
54,028 |
North America |
16,948 |
19,355 |
Asia Pacific |
17,753 |
18,634 |
South America, Africa, Middle East |
6,752 |
7,486 |
BASF Group |
110,302 |
117,628 |
of which apprentices and trainees |
3,120 |
3,161 |
temporary staff |
2,128 |
2,606 |
The average number of employees was distributed over the regions as follows:
|
2020 |
2019 |
|---|---|---|
Europe |
71,329 |
73,126 |
of which Germany |
53,080 |
54,722 |
North America |
18,599 |
19,624 |
Asia Pacific |
18,719 |
18,843 |
South America, Africa, Middle East |
7,326 |
7,607 |
BASF Group |
115,973 |
119,200 |
of which apprentices and trainees |
2,821 |
2,811 |
temporary staff |
2,518 |
2,922 |
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 1,055 employees (2019: 206 employees).
The BASF Group’s average number of employees for 2020 included 5,400 employees from the disposal group for the construction chemicals business (2019: 6,801 employees).