In Germany, it is most worthwhile to have been the head of a DAX company. Two resigned CEOs top the salary rankings of the top 40 listed companies in 2022 thanks to their long-term contracts, according to an analysis of compensation reports. According to calculations by the Reuters news agency, Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted received a total of 15.37 million euros in remuneration thanks to a twelve-million-euro severance payment.
Former Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess will continue to have his salary paid after his resignation in the summer until his contract expires in October 2025. Last year, it came to 11.83 million euros.
Diess' successor Oliver Blume is only in sixth place in the ranking of active DAX bosses with 7.39 million euros. It is headed by Deutsche Börse CEO Theodor Weimer, whose remuneration more than doubled to €11.53 million (2021: €5.64 million) thanks to the payment of a tranche of long-term bonuses. A total of three incumbent DAX bosses earned more than ten million euros.
In addition to Weimer, these were BMW CEO Oliver Zipse (10.87 million) and the only female driver of a DAX company, Belen Garijo of the chemical and pharmaceutical company Merck, who earned 10.53 million euros for the second time in a row and earned a double-digit million salary.
Difficult to compare
The "poorest" DAX bosses work for Zalando. With 78,000 euros each, the company founders and co-heads of the online retailer, Robert Gentz and David Schneider, are at the bottom of the remuneration ranking. There were no bonuses for them. But the mini-salary is put into perspective when looking at 2021: By exercising stock options from the years surrounding the IPO, they had received Zalando securities worth 45.5 million euros each.
The biggest cuts among the top earners in the Dax had to be made by Post CEO Frank Appel, who was still at the top of the salary rankings in 2021 with 11.89 million euros after his long-term bonuses became due. With 6.99 million, it was only enough for eighth place in 2022. Winners and losers among the Dax bosses are balanced. 19 managers earned more, 18 less, and one received the same salary as a year earlier. Biotech supplier Qiagen has not yet published a compensation report.
The values refer to the "remuneration granted and owed", including the pension contributions that companies pay for their bosses. In addition to the base salary, this includes the annual bonuses that managers are entitled to for their performance in 2022, as well as the long-term bonuses from previous years that were due. Where the remuneration reports deviate from the usual presentation, the amounts are calculated comparably.
The uniform tables according to the Corporate Governance Code (GCGC) were replaced in 2021 by a legal regulation, which, however, is interpreted differently. The companies are fulfilling their duty, says remuneration expert Regine Siepmann from the consulting firm hkp. But comprehensibility and comparability fell by the wayside. "This means that the goal of the second European Shareholder Rights Directive and its German implementation has been missed."
Good earnings in the auto industry
On average, it is still best earned in the automotive industry. Among the "Top 7" are Zipse, Blume and Mercedes-Benz boss Ola Källenius (7.09 million), the bosses of all three major carmakers. The new VW CEO Blume did not receive an extra salary for his "part-time job" at the sports car subsidiary Porsche AG in 2022. The million-dollar bonuses promised to the Porsche board members for the successful IPO will only be paid out gradually over the next few years, depending on how the share develops.
Some DAX bosses can hope for significantly more money in the next few years. While SAP CEO Christian Klein was still in the middle of the pack in 2022 with a total compensation of 4.89 million euros, he has earned claims to long-term bonuses of 5.5 million euros in that year alone. The "salary cap" that most DAX companies have imposed on their board members is particularly high at up to 34 million euros. Now that things are going much better at Deutsche Bank, CEO Christian Sewing can also expect significant salary increases. He received only 4.39 (2021: 3.87) million euros for the past year. However, if all deferred bonuses are paid out as planned, it could come up to 8.99 million.