| € millions | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personnel costs (including welfare contributions)(1) | Personnel costs (including welfare contributions)(1)20248,474.3 | Personnel costs (including welfare contributions)(1)20237,796.0 | Personnel costs (including welfare contributions)(1)20227,263.7 |
Personnel costs include pension expenses (excluding interest components), the cost of any share-based payments (stock options and free shares), and payroll taxes.
Costs recorded in respect of remuneration and similar benefits granted to the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors as well as its Chairman, a corporate officer, can be analysed as follows:
| € millions | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Directors’ fees | Directors’ fees 2024 1.5 |
Directors’ fees 2023 1.4 |
Directors’ fees 2022 1.3 |
| Salaries and benefits including employer welfare contributions | Salaries and benefits including employer welfare contributions 2024 41.9 |
Salaries and benefits including employer welfare contributions 2023 43.2 |
Salaries and benefits including employer welfare contributions 2022 40.4 |
| Employee retirement obligation charges | Employee retirement obligation charges 2024 5.4 |
Employee retirement obligation charges 2023 4.7 |
Employee retirement obligation charges 2022 10.2 |
| Share-based payment (stock options and free shares) | Share-based payment (stock options and free shares) 2024 34.0 |
Share-based payment (stock options and free shares) 2023 31.2 |
Share-based payment (stock options and free shares) 2022 28.9 |
The number of executives who were members of the Management Committee and the Chairman of the Board of Directors was 20 at 31 December 2024 as at 31 December 2023 and at 31 December 2022.
Accounting principles
The Group operates pension, early retirement and other employee benefit schemes depending on local legislation and regulations.
For obligatory state schemes and other defined-contribution schemes, the Group recognises in the income statement contributions payable when they are due. No provision has been set aside in this respect as the Group’s obligation does not exceed the amount of contributions paid.
The characteristics of the defined benefit schemes in force within the Group are as follows:
The charges recorded in the income statement during the year include:
The latter two items represent the interest component of the pension costs. The interest component is shown within Net financial income on the Other financial income and expenses item.
To determine the discounted value of the obligation for each scheme, the Group applies an actuarial valuation method based on the final salary (projected unit credit method). The obligations and the fair value of plan assets are assessed each year using length-of-service, life expectancy, staff turnover by category and economic assumptions (such as inflation rate and discount rate).
The Group applies a simplified granular approach to calculate its service cost for the period. Under this simplified approach, two different discount rates are used to calculate the obligation and the service cost based on the duration of the future cash flows relating to each of these items. Financial costs are calculated by applying the discount rate used for the obligation to plan assets and by applying the differential interest rate to service cost for the period.
Actuarial gains and losses arising on post-employment defined benefit obligations are recognised in equity.
Actuarial gains and losses in relation to other benefits such as jubilee awards and long-serve bonuses are immediately charged to the income statement.
The liability corresponding to the Company’s net defined benefit obligation regarding its employees is recorded in the balance sheet on the Provisions for employee retirement obligations and related benefits line.
