In addition to their fixed base salary (which includes vacation and Christmas bonuses), WACKER employees also receive variable compensation – a voluntary payment to employees on the standard and above-standard-pay scales. It consists of a profit-sharing amount and a personal-performance component.

IG BCE (the German mining, chemicals and energy labor union) and chemical industry employers agreed on a new 15-month collective-bargaining agreement in March 2011. The standard pay scale increased by 4.1 percent. Training allowances were raised by €35 per month. Union and management representatives negotiated a new 19-month collective-bargaining agreement in May 2012. The standard pay scale increased by 4.5 percent. Training allowances were raised by €50 per month. WACKER increased the salaries of above-standard-payscale employees by 4.0 percent for a 12-month period.

The German mining, chemicals and energy labor union (IG BCE), the employers’ association of German private employment agencies (BAP), and the German temporary-employment agencies’ interest group (iGZ) concluded a collective-bargaining agreement for temporary workers. It entered into force in November 2012 and is aimed at bringing temporary workers’ wages in line with the compensation paid to permanent staff. Temporary workers in the final stage achieve between 85 and 90 percent of the compensation paid in the chemical industry.

In 2011, management and employee representatives agreed on how the Demography Fund stipulated in the “Working Life and Demography” collective-bargaining agreement will be used. Accordingly, the annual “demographic sum” of €300 per full-time employee will be paid into the company pension plan. As this amount was first offered in 2010, the company provided €600 per full-time employee in 2011. All standard and above-standard-payscale employees, excluding members of executive personnel (OFKs), receive the demographic sum. In addition to, and independently of, the demographic sum governed by collective-bargaining agreements, WACKER provided a one-time sum of €16.8 million as a start-up financing measure in 2011.

The “demographic sum I” agreed by the collective-bargaining parties – €312.30 per full-time employee – was paid into the pension plan in 2012. The amount represents compensation for any cuts in the statutory retirement plan that might result when employees take early retirement. The “demographic sum II” in the amount of €200 per full-time standard-payscale employee for the years 2012 through 2015 that was additionally agreed by the parties in the 2012 collective-bargaining agreement is used for lifecycle-oriented working-time models, for example phased early retirement. Separate rules apply in the collective-bargaining region of eastern Germany. In this region, a company fund will be formed and 2.5 percent of standard-payscale compensation for the previous year will be paid into it each year. Additionally, the fund will be topped up by the respective “demographic sum II” of €200 per full-time standard-payscale employee for each year from 2012 through 2015. The purpose of the fund is to permit the working hours of selected employees to be adjusted in line with the particular stages in their lives (such as raising children, caring for relatives), while taking into account the company’s specific business situation.

Other important aspects, alongside salaries, include the company’s social-insurance contributions. Based on what competitors offer and based on local market conditions, these benefits include supplementary sick pay, subsidized company restaurants, and attractive company cars.

A WACKER company pension is an important compensation component and is available at most of our German and non-German sites – except for regions where the statutory pension appears sufficient or legal provisions are inadequate.

In Germany, the WACKER company pension has two components: the basic pension and a supplementary pension. In addition, employees have the opportunity to enlist in a private plan that minimizes their tax burden while saving for retirement. The basic company pension supplements the statutory pension. In taxation terms, the supplementary company pension positively impacts that proportion of the salary which exceeds the upper limit for the statutory pension and the basic company pension.

Wacker Chemie AG’s pension fund – Pensionskasse der Wacker Chemie VVaG (a mutual insurance company) – provides a company pension to employees in Germany. The fund has some 17,000 members and provides pension payments to around 7,450 retirees. The average pension paid was around €630 per month. WACKER pays up to 3.5 times its employees’ annual pension contributions, with the exact amount being determined by the individual contribution rate.

The WACKER pension fund achieved good results during the 2011-2012 period. Fund assets grew by approximately €100 million to nearly €1.6 billion, and in 2012, by another €108 million to €1.7 billion. Despite the difficult capital-market environment, the WACKER pension fund achieved a market-value return of 4.3 percent in 2011, and in 2012, 5.7 percent. The fund has prepared itself well for the coming years with a broad investment portfolio, security mechanisms and continual risk evaluation. The fund also passed all the stress tests required by Germany’s Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

Additionally, WACKER contributes to guaranteed minimum incomes in countries without national mandatory health insurance or pension programs. We make sure that our compensation and social benefits are fair and competitive worldwide. At the very least, they correspond to local legislation or industrial codes of practice and, in many cases, they surpass the local minimum. WACKER Greater China, for example, offers its employees a host of additional benefits, such as insurance policies or relocation assistance. Lower-paid employees, too, are in a position to cover their own and their families’ living costs.

WACKER’s part-time and fixed-term employees also receive the full range of social benefits. However, participation in some benefits and their full payment, e.g. profit-sharing and the company pension, are dependent on minimum seniority.

With its good social benefits and performance-based compensation, WACKER is an attractive employer. This explains our high level of employee loyalty. The average length of service in Germany (permanent staff) was 16.8 years (2011: 16.7 years). On average, executive personnel remain at the company for 22 years. The 2012 groupwide employee turnover rate rose to 7.9 percent (2011: 2.9 percent). The higher rate is due to the closure of Siltronic’s production site at Hikari (Japan) and the layoffs at the Portland (USA) site. As a consequence of these measures, the turnover rate at non-German sites rose from 8.9 percent in 2011 to 30.8 percent in 2012. It was unchanged in Germany at 0.9 percent (2011: 0.9 percent).

WACKER holds a regular celebration to honor its employees who have been with the company for many years. In 2012 alone, 276 employees based in Germany were recognized for 25, 40 or 50 years of service, respectively.

No other German chemical or pharmaceutical company received a better evaluation from its own managers than WACKER in 2011. The satisfaction survey of Germany’s Association of Chemical-Industry Executives (VAA) ranked WACKER at the top for the first time ever with a score of 2.77 (using the German school grade scale of 1 – best – to 6 – worst). In the following year, WACKER, with a score of 2.78, achieved fourth place among 25 companies evaluated. The survey assessed corporate strategies, culture and working conditions.

China is another country where WACKER ranks among the best employers. The Corporate Research Foundation (CRF) gave WACKER Greater China its “Top Employer” seal of approval in both years under review. CRF is an independent organization that has been rating companies since 1991 for such aspects as social benefits, working conditions, professional training and career opportunities, and corporate culture.

In a survey of 36,000 students at 130 universities who were nearing their final exams, the “trendence” consultancy firm identified WACKER as a highly popular employer among engineering graduates. The survey about highly popular employers ranked WACKER among Germany’s top 100 companies in 2012. A student survey carried out by the consultancy firm "Universum" in 2012 showed that, in Germany, WACKER was a favored employer for natural sciences majors.