At the beginning of june, 21.7 percent of all supervisory board members were female, according to an evaluation by the consulting firm pwc presented in frankfurt on thursday.
At the beginning of 2011, the proportion of women had been only 13.4 percent. Above all, the number of women on the owner side had increased. The shareholders now represented 44 female supervisory board members (17.6 percent) after 20 at the beginning of 2011. For the employees, 62 women (26.1 percent) now sit on DAX supervisory boards, compared with 47 previously.
28 of the 30 dax companies now follow the recommendation of the government commission for good corporate governance ("corporate governance code"), according to which a target should be set for appropriate participation by women.
The medium-term recommendation averaged a good 23 percent, pwc noted. 18 groups had already achieved the targets they had set themselves. However, the political expectations were 30 to 40 percent.
The commission was initiated by the federal government in 2001 and makes recommendations to listed companies on good corporate governance and supervision. This is intended as an instrument of self-regulation, the guidelines are not legally binding.
At its conference in berlin on thursday, the commission meanwhile spoke out against the coalition’s legislative plans for limiting managerial salary holders. "It is doubtful whether the shareholders’ decision at the annual general meeting will prevent excessive board remuneration," said the chairman of the advisory panel and head of the commerzbank supervisory board, klaus-peter muller.
According to the plans, shareholders are to be given more control rights over management board remuneration and the annual general meeting of listed companies is to decide once a year on the full remuneration of the management board, instead of the supervisory board as is currently the case. But there should be no legal upper limit.
To avoid excesses in executive compensation, the commission is focusing above all on greater transparency. "By intervening further, we may have met certain socio-political expectations". But we have been shackled by this to companies operating around the world," muller said.