DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - Chief executive officers of Germany's major blue-chip companies saw their earnings rise substantially in 2025 compared to the previous year. According to calculations by the Handelsblatt Research Institute (HRI), CEOs of companies listed on the benchmark DAX index received total compensation of 261.3 million euros. According to "Handelsblatt", this represents a 12.9 percent increase year-on-year. Salaries had previously risen by approximately ten percent in 2024 and two percent in 2023, following a period in 2022 when top managers were forced to accept pay cuts.
The report attributes last year's increase primarily to one-off payments, such as severance packages, and the growing trend of linking compensation to share price performance. Critics have long condemned the escalating executive pay and the widening gap between top management compensation and the general workforce, warning of an "Americanization" of pay ratios. On average, each DAX CEO received approximately 6.9 million euros in 2025. Seven top managers were paid more than ten million euros. SAP CEO Christian Klein remained the top earner, taking home 16.24 million euros, although this was down from the approximately 19 million euros he received the previous year.
According to an analysis by "Wirtschaftswoche", the top earners were followed by Christian Sewing of Deutsche Bank (15.69 million), Roland Busch of Siemens (12.33 million), Oliver Bäte of Allianz (11.61 million), and Tim Höttges of Deutsche Telekom (11.55 million). The year's biggest climber is likely Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger. Driven by the defense boom, he earned over 10 million euros - two and a half times his previous year's salary - moving up to sixth place.
As in previous years, the HRI study is based on the compensation reports of 38 of the 40 DAX companies. Aircraft manufacturer Airbus and diagnostics group Qiagen were not included, as both companies are not legally headquartered in Germany./hgo/DP/he
