The chief executives of Germany’s largest publicly traded corporations earned significantly more money in 2025 compared to the previous year. According to calculations by the “Handelsblatt Research Institute” (HRI), the CEOs of companies from the DAX leading index received a total compensation of 261.3 million euros. This figure represents a 12.9% increase over the previous year, following a rise of about 10% in 2024 and a 2% increase in 2023, with the top managers having to accept pay cuts in 2022.
This year’s gains were largely attributed to special payments, such as severance packages, as well as the increasing tie of compensation to the respective share price. Critics have voiced concern over the continually rising top salaries and the imbalance between the remuneration of the highest-ranking executives and the rest of the workforce, suggesting that the employment practices are becoming “Americanized”.
On average, each DAX CEO earned around 6.9 million euros in 2025, with seven of the top managers earning more than ten million euros.