Status: 12/22/2022 2:38 p.m
Managers in state-owned companies sometimes receive a significantly higher salary than Chancellor Scholz – according to a list from the Ministry of Finance. According to this, the top earner is Bahnchef Lutz.
The Federal Chancellor earns less than many heads of state-owned companies and institutions. This emerges from a list of the Federal Ministry of Finance. This was sent to the parliamentary manager of the left-wing faction in the Bundestag, Jan Korte, after a request and several correspondence.
According to this, at least 21 members of the board or management of federal companies or institutions have a higher annual salary than Olaf Scholz, who receives around 360,000 euros a year. According to the list, the top earner is the CEO of Deutsche Bahn, Richard Lutz, with an annual salary of 900,000 euros, although apparently it has not yet been taken into account that he received a salary increase of ten percent this year. Lutz follows in the list of managing directors of Bundesdruckerei with EUR 863,000.
Behind them are other board members of Deutsche Bahn and members of the board of the state development bank KfW, who receive between 555,400 and 687,600 euros a year. The earnings of the managing directors of various Helmholtz research centers, the German air traffic control, the Autobahn GmbH, the toll operator Toll Collect and the federal finance agency are sometimes above the salary of a chancellor or come close.
Repeated inquiries at Lindner
In the correspondence with the ministry, Korte had specifically addressed Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). He had said that no director of a public broadcaster should earn more than the Federal Chancellor. A self-commitment is necessary in order to be economical with the money of the fee payers.
The left-wing politician then wrote to Lindner that he could understand this demand. “However, in order to be able to classify your claim, it would be important to know who in the federal institutes, institutions or companies receives a higher salary than the Federal Chancellor.” Taxpayers’ money should also be used sparingly.
According to the editorial network Germany (RND), Korte had previously made this request twice. After repeated inquiries, the ministry finally sent the deputy the said list, in which the salaries of a total of 151 members of the boards and managers of various federal companies are listed.
“These are absurd conditions”
“Compared to the board of directors of Deutsche Bahn AG, Chancellor Scholz is almost on a voluntary basis,” said Korte in a reaction. “As head of Bundesdruckerei, he would probably have less stress, but twice as much salary. These are absurd conditions. The crazy policy of outsourcing and privatizing state infrastructure and institutions must stop.”
According to RND, the list is also not entirely complete: in some cases, Korte was referred to the secret protection agency of the Bundestag. In order to protect the personal and informational self-determination rights of these executives, he could view the information on their salaries there, but not publish them.