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

The Group’s business performance precluded any payment of a profit share to employees in Germany in 2013 and 2014. The performance bonus and salary increases usually awarded to employees on above-standard payscales for value retention purposes were also suspended in 2013. The portion of variable compensation coupled to personal performance for 2012 was paid out in 2014. In 2013, the Executive Board and executive personnel contributed by forgoing 10 percent of their fixed monthly salaries from March through November. Half of this contribution was paid back to executive personnel in 2014. In celebration of the Group’s centennial, all WACKER employees received a bonus payment in 2014.

IG BCE (the German mining, chemicals and energy labor union) and chemical-industry employers agreed on a new 14-month collective-bargaining agreement in February 2014. The standard payscale increased by 3.7 percent. WACKER raised the minimum salary-bracket values for above-standard-payscale employees by 4 percent in 2014.

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 our 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. 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. In addition, employees have the opportunity to enlist in a private plan that minimizes their tax burden while saving for retirement. WACKER matches supplementary contributions as provided for by the collective wage agreements. For the base amount, employees receive a 28-percent match called “Chemieförderung I”; additional contributions receive the 13-percent “Chemieförderung II” match.

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 7,700 retirees. The average pension paid in the period under review was €635 per month. WACKER paid in up to four times its employees’ annual pension contributions, with the exact amount being determined by the individual contribution rate.

The WACKER pension fund again achieved good results during the 2013-2014 period. Fund assets grew by €116 million to approximately €1.8 billion in 2013, and in 2014, by another €150 million to around €1.96 billion. Despite the difficult capital-market environment, the WACKER pension fund achieved a book-value return of 4.5 percent in 2013, and in 2014, 4.3 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.

Good social benefits, competitive compensation and motivating tasks make WACKER an attractive employer. This explains our high level of employee loyalty. The average length of service in Germany (permanent staff) is 18.1 years (2013: 17.3 years). On average, executive personnel remain at the company for 21 years. The 2014 groupwide employee turnover rate rose to 4.1 percent (2013: 3.4 percent) and in Germany, it was only 0.8 percent (2013: 0.9 percent). At non-German sites, it was 13.8 percent (2013: 11.9 percent).

WACKER holds a regular celebration to honor its employees who have been with the company for many years. In 2014 alone, 467 employees based in Germany were recognized for 25 or 40 years of service, respectively.

As viewed by its own managerial employees, WACKER was once again one of the most popular chemical-sector employers in Germany in 2014. In the annual satisfaction survey (available in German only) conducted by Germany’s Association of Chemical-Industry Executives (VAA), the members gave WACKER a grade of 3.01 – slightly below the 2013 figure (2.80). On average, the 23 chemical, pharmaceutical and medical-technology companies participating in the survey scored 3.2 on a scale of 1 to 6, where 1 is the highest grade. In terms of its overall ranking, WACKER fell from sixth place in 2013 to twelfth place. Experience shows that these results correlate with the company’s financial success.

WACKER participates in the Fair Company initiative and thus proves to be a responsible and fair training company for university students, too. In the annual survey conducted by the German online recruitment and career guidance specialist ABSOLVENTA, Wacker Chemie AG took third place in the “Employer Quality” category. The over 7,500 interns who participated gave WACKER an average rating of 4.62 on a scale of 1 (dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). WACKER emerged as the winner in the “Pharmaceutical/Medical Technology/Chemical” category. A 2014 survey by Universum, a specialist Employer Branding consultancy, identified WACKER Germany as one of the most attractive employers for science students.