The chief executives of Germany’s largest publicly listed corporations earned significantly more money in 2025 compared to the previous year. According to calculations by the “Handelsblatt Research Institute” (HRI), the CEOs of corporations in the leading DAX index collectively received compensation amounting to 261.3 million euros. This represents a 12.9 percent increase over the previous year, following a roughly ten percent rise in 2024 and a two percent rise in 2023. In fact, top managers had to accept pay cuts in 2022.
Much of last year’s increase was attributed to special payments, such as severance packages, as well as the growing tendency for compensation to be tied to the respective stock prices. Critics have voiced concerns over the ever-increasing top salaries, pointing to an imbalance between the compensation received by the highest executives and the rest of the workforce. They argue that the situation is becoming “Americanized”.
On average, each DAX chief received around 6.9 million euros in 2025, with seven of the top managers earning more than ten million euros.
