28. Personnel Expenses and Employees
Personnel expenses
The BASF Group’s expenses for wages and salaries, social security contributions and assistance, as well as for pensions in 2021 totaled €11,097 million. In 2020, these expenses amounted to €10,576 million and included personnel expenses from the disposal group for the construction chemicals business in the amount of €291 million until the date of the divestiture. The rise in personnel expenses in 2021 was mainly due to higher bonus provisions. Particularly the lower average number of employees had an offsetting impact.
|
2021 |
2020 |
|---|---|---|
Wages and salaries |
8,847 |
8,416 |
Social security contributions and assistance expenses |
1,519 |
1,424 |
Pension expenses |
732 |
736 |
Personnel expenses |
11,097 |
10,576 |
Number of employees
As of December 31, 2021, the number of employees increased to 111,047 employees compared with 110,302 employees as of December 31, 2020. The rise was primarily due to staff increases in Asia Pacific, especially in connection with the formation of BASF Shanshan Battery Materials Co., Ltd., as well as for the new Verbund site in Zhanjiang, China. The divestiture of the pigments business, which comprised around 2,500 employees, had an offsetting impact.
As of December 31, 2021, a total of 1,175 employees (2020: 1,137 employees) worked at joint operations.
The development of the number of employees was distributed over the regions as follows:
|
2021 |
2020 |
|---|---|---|
Europe |
67,532 |
68,849 |
of which Germany |
51,026 |
51,961 |
North America |
16,753 |
16,948 |
Asia Pacific |
19,976 |
17,753 |
South America, Africa, Middle East |
6,786 |
6,752 |
BASF Group |
111,047 |
110,302 |
of which apprentices and trainees |
3,028 |
3,120 |
temporary staff |
2,329 |
2,128 |
The average number of employees was distributed over the regions as follows:
|
2021 |
2020 |
|---|---|---|
Europe |
67,788 |
71,329 |
of which Germany |
51,144 |
53,080 |
North America |
16,765 |
18,599 |
Asia Pacific |
18,464 |
18,719 |
South America, Africa, Middle East |
6,799 |
7,326 |
BASF Group |
109,815 |
115,973 |
of which apprentices and trainees |
2,750 |
2,821 |
temporary staff |
2,400 |
2,518 |
The average number of employees decreased to 109,815 employees in 2021 (2020: 115,973 employees). This decline was primarily due to the divestiture of the construction chemicals business in the previous year and to the divestiture of the pigments business in the year under review. 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 1,143 employees (2020: 1,055 employees).