28. Personnel Expenses and Employees
Personnel expenses
Expenses for wages and salaries, social security contributions and assistance, as well as for pensions totaled €11,400 million in 2022. In the previous year, these amounted to €11,097 million. The rise was mainly attributable to a higher wage and salary level, currency effects, particularly from the U.S. dollar, as well as a higher average number of employees. Declining bonus provisions and lower pension expenses had an offsetting effect.
|
2022 |
2021 |
|---|---|---|
Wages and salaries |
9,102 |
8,847 |
Social security contributions and assistance expenses |
1,598 |
1,519 |
Pension expenses |
701 |
732 |
Personnel expenses |
11,400 |
11,097 |
Number of employees
As of December 31, 2022, the number of employees increased to 111,481 employees compared with 111,047 employees as of December 31, 2021. The rise was primarily due to staff increases in Asia Pacific, especially for the new Verbund site in Zhanjiang, China. Furthermore, the Global Business Services unit contributed to a rise in Germany, Asia Pacific and South America. In addition, the investment project to expand infrastructure and production plants for battery materials at the Schwarzheide site in Germany led to a rise in the number of employees. The divestiture of the kaolin minerals business and the suspension of business activities in Russia had an offsetting impact.
Employees of joint operations are included in the number of employees relative to BASF’s share in the company. As of December 31, 2022, a total of 1,196 employees (2021: 1,175 employees) worked at joint operations.
The development of the number of employees in the BASF Group was distributed over the regions as follows:
|
2022 |
2021 |
|---|---|---|
Europe |
67,958 |
67,532 |
of which Germany |
51,703 |
51,026 |
North America |
16,036 |
16,753 |
Asia Pacific |
20,452 |
19,976 |
South America, Africa, Middle East |
7,035 |
6,786 |
BASF Group |
111,481 |
111,047 |
of which apprentices and trainees |
3,049 |
3,028 |
temporary staff |
2,468 |
2,329 |
The average number of employees was distributed over the regions as follows:
|
2022 |
2021 |
|---|---|---|
Europe |
67,621 |
67,788 |
of which Germany |
51,174 |
51,144 |
North America |
16,452 |
16,765 |
Asia Pacific |
20,036 |
18,464 |
South America, Africa, Middle East |
6,914 |
6,799 |
BASF Group |
111,023 |
109,815 |
of which apprentices and trainees |
2,711 |
2,750 |
temporary staff |
2,642 |
2,400 |
The average number of employees increased to 111,023 employees in 2022 (2021: 109,815 employees).
The reasons for the development of the number of employees as described above are also decisive to the rise in average number of employees. Furthermore, the formation of BASF Shanshan Battery Materials Co., Ltd. as of August 31, 2021, had an increasing effect, and the divestiture of the pigments business as of June 30, 2021, had a reducing effect.
On average, 1,188 employees worked at joint operations (2021: 1,143 employees).