Remuneration and Incentives for Austria's Top Managers

Remuneration patterns of top executives of Austrian manufacturing corporations show little incentive character: More than 70 percent of total remuneration is fix, the rest flexible. Within this flexible part (which is higher for domestically and foreign-owned firms than for directly or indirectly nationalized ones) size plays a much more important role than profit orientation. Differences in salaries across corporations are explained mainly by size differences, in second place by ownership category. On average a firm with 10 percent more value added or employment pays around 3 percent more to each executive.