Employees

Slight Increase in Staff

WACKER’s workforce increased by 2.7 percent in 2017. The main reason for this slight growth was the start-up of polysilicon production in Tennessee, USA.

72.3 percent of WACKER’s employees work in Germany and 27.7 percent at the company’s international sites.

As a manufacturing company, WACKER has a large contingent of industrial workers (49.9 percent), roughly one-ninth (11.3 percent) of whom are women.

Personnel expenses rose 8.8 percent year over year to €1,198.0 million.

They included outlays for social benefits and the company pension plan in the amount of €241.6 million (2016: €216.2 million). The increase in personnel expenses was due to the higher number of employees, to the increase in the standard pay scale and to variable salary components.

In addition to their fixed base salary, WACKER employees usually also receive variable compensation – a voluntary payment to employees on both the standard and above-standard pay scales. This payment comprises a profit-sharing amount and a personal-performance component. Variable compensation payments totaled €65.1 million groupwide in 2017. As provided for in the collective-bargaining agreement of June 2016 between the IG BCE labor union and chemical-industry employers, the standard pay scale increased by 2.3 percent effective October 1, 2017.

A WACKER company pension is an important compensation component and is available at most of our German and international sites, except for regions where the statutory pension appears sufficient or legal provisions are inadequate. Wacker Chemie AG’s pension fund – Pensionskasse der Wacker Chemie VVaG – provides a company pension to WACKER employees in Germany. The fund has around 17,200 members and provides pension payments to some 8,200 retirees. The average pension paid in the reporting period was around €650 per month. WACKER pays in up to four times its employees’ annual pension contributions, with the exact amount being determined by the type of agreement. Employees can supplement their company pensions by making their own additional contributions. As provided for in the collective wage agreements, WACKER matches the employees’ supplementary contributions. Employees in Germany also receive an additional supplementary pension for that portion of their salary that exceeds the pension insurance contribution assessment ceiling.