Section 87 of the German Stock Corporation Act tells the supervisory board how to pay the management board. Total pay must stand in einem angemessenen Verhältnis, in an appropriate relationship, to the member’s duties and performance and to the situation of the company. It must not exceed die übliche Vergütung, the usual pay, without special reasons. If the company’s situation gets so much worse that continuing the pay would be unfair to the company, the supervisory board should reduce it. The reference to performance, the limit of the usual pay and this duty to reduce pay were added by a law of 2009 on the appropriateness of management board pay.
In March 2012, the pay of Volkswagen’s chief executive Martin Winterkorn became a public issue. He had received about 17 million euros for 2011. Criticism came from business as well as from the unions. Lutz Goebel, head of the association Die Familienunternehmer, said: Fünf Millionen sind eine vernünftige Grenze. Five million is a reasonable limit. Winterkorn answered: Ich kann verstehen, dass manche sagen, das ist zu viel. I can understand that some people say this is too much. In February 2013, Volkswagen’s supervisory board decided that bonuses would be paid only in years with an operating profit of at least five billion euros.