Employees

Workforce Expands

WACKER’s workforce increased by 5.3 percent in 2018. The increase was prompted by high utilization rates at our production plants and by the integration of WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS’ new site in Amsterdam (Netherlands).

German sites accounted for 70.8 percent of WACKER’s employees and international sites for 29.2 percent.

As a manufacturing company, WACKER has a large contingent of industrial workers (49.4 percent), roughly one-eighth (11.8 percent) of whom are women.

Personnel expenses climbed 2.8 percent year over year to €1,231.5 million.

They included outlays for social benefits and the company pension plan in the amount of €244.9 million (2017: €241.6 million). The rise in expenses stemmed from higher employee numbers and the increase in the standard pay scale. In September 2018, a collective-bargaining agreement was reached between the IG BCE labor union and chemical employers. As a result, the standard pay scale rose by 3.6 percent on November 1, 2018. In 2019, vacation pay will increase from €614 to €1,200 per annum. Compensation for apprentices also rose, by a total of 9.0 percent for the first two training years and by a total of 6.0 percent for the third and fourth years.

Aside from a fixed base salary, WACKER employees usually receive variable compensation. This voluntary payment to employees on both the standard and above-standard pay scales is tied to the attainment of corporate goals. In 2018, variable compensation totaled €81.1 million groupwide.

A WACKER company pension is an important compensation component. It is available at most of our German and international sites, except for regions where the statutory pension appears sufficient or legal provisions are inadequate. In Germany, WACKER employees receive a pension through Wacker Chemie AG’s pension fund (Pensionskasse der Wacker Chemie VVaG). The fund has around 17,800 members and provides pension payments to some 8,400 retirees. The average pension paid in the reporting period was around €650 per month. WACKER pays in up to four times an employee’s 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 supports 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.