Board members at Germany’s largest companies earned an average of three percent more in 2024 than the year before, according to a study on executive pay by the German Shareholder Protection Association (DSW) and the Technical University of Munich.
While executive pay races away from average employee salaries in many parts of the world, it continues to remain relatively stable in Germany.
One reason for this, in addition to factors including strong workers' unions, employee representation on supervisory boards and cultural expectations, is the country’s symbolic “€10 million limit” or Schallmauer (which literally translates to sound barrier).
How much do Germany’s CEOs earn?
In 2024, the CEOs of Germany’s largest companies (listed on the DAX) earned an average of around €6.3 million, with Volkswagen’s Oliver Blume and Adidas’s Bjørn Gulden topping the list at €10.6 million and €10.3 million respectively.
In the case of Blume, almost three-quarters of his remuneration came from long-term bonuses, even though the share prices of Volkswagen and Porsche fell significantly in 2024. Porsche is set to leave the DAX index on September 22nd, following a significant drop in the company's share price.
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For the purposes of comparison, the average gross annual salary in Germany for full-time employees was roughly €52,300 in 2024, before taxes and social charges.
The average board member salary across the DAX was €3.76 million – up 3 percent from the previous year – and DAX CEOs earned about 41 times more than their employees on average (up from 40 times more in 2023).
At Adidas, the CEO out-earned his employees by as much as 95 times, while at Siemens Energy it was just 13 times more.
The three percent increase in executive pay in 2024 was bettered by an approximately 4.5 percent increase in the average gross salary for a full-time employee in Germany.
Germany vs Switzerland
While the difference in executive and employee pay may seem extreme in Germany, it pales in comparison with a number of other countries.
In Switzerland, for example, CEOs at major companies received bumper pay increases of around 18 percent on average in 2024.
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The chief executives of the 39 largest Swiss corporations – including Novartis, UBS, Roche, and Nestlé – earned an average of 143 times more than their lowest-paid employees.
The most striking example is Basel-based pharmaceutical multinational Novartis.
The annual income in 2024 of Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan was CHF 19.2 million (€19.9 million) – around 333 times higher than the lowest employee salary of 57,700 Swiss francs at the firm.
The €10 million ‘Schallmauer’ limit
Under Stock Corporation Law (Aktiengesetz), companies in Germany are required to set a maximum limit for annual executive pay in their remuneration system, to be approved by the supervisory board and in some cases by shareholders at annual general meetings.
One reason that pay differentials in Germany appear somewhat restrained, at least in comparison to countries like Switzerland, is thanks to the existence of an informal but widely cited upper boundary: the €10 million Schallmauer (sound barrier). This figure is recommended and monitored by institutions like the German Shareholder Protection Association (DSW).
The “limit” is not a strict legal cap, but a guideline intended to preserve social peace and transparency. Enforcement is through shareholder votes and public scrutiny, rather than fines or official sanctions.
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Announcing the DSW study into executive pay, CEO Marc Tüngler said he regretted that the Schallmauer was being “secretly, quietly, and silently” eroded as more and more companies elected to cap wages at sums above the €10 million mark.
In 2024, two of 39 DAX-listed CEOs exceeded the symbolic limit. Those being the aforementioned heads of Volkswagen and Adidas.
With €9.9 million, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing remained just below this mark
In the current year, corporations such as RWE, Deutsche Telekom, and Deutsche Post have also had further increases approved at their annual general meetings, and maximum remuneration levels set by DAX companies now average €10.4 million.
In 2025, major German trade unions including IG Metall and Verdi have focused on securing wage increases for regular employees and raising minimum salaries, rather than addressing top executive remuneration.
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In Germany, a CEO’s annual “salary” is usually made up of fixed base pay, short-term variable bonuses, and long-term incentives, usually linked to stock performance and company goals.
The exact balance between fixed and variable remuneration varies from company to company.
In 2024, for example, Christian Klein, CEO of SAP only received 15.6 percent of his total pay as fixed compensation, compared to 27 percent for Adidas’s CEO.
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