D.24. Personnel costs
Total personnel costs include the following items:
| (€ million) | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |||||||||
| Salaries | 6,592 | 6,424 | 6,473 | |||||||||
| Social security charges (including defined-contribution pension plans) | 1,977 | 1,948 | 1,951 | |||||||||
| Stock options and other share-based payment expense | 258 | 250 | 206 | |||||||||
| Defined-benefit pension plans | 275 | 273 | 280 | |||||||||
| Other employee benefits | 219 | 224 | 224 | |||||||||
| Total(a) | 9,321 | 9,119 | 9,134 | |||||||||
| (a) |
Excludes personnel costs for the Animal Health business: immaterial in 2017, €0.6 billion for 2016 and 2015. |
The total number of registered employees (excluding those of the Animal Health business) was 106,566 as of December 31, 2017, compared with 106,859 as of December 31, 2016 and 109,089 as of December 31, 2015.
Employee numbers by function as of December 31 are shown below:
| 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | ||||||||||
| Production | 40,417 | 41,867 | 42,754 | |||||||||
| Research and development | 14,764 | 15,148 | 15,384 | |||||||||
| Sales force | 30,284 | 30,815 | 32,771 | |||||||||
| Marketing and support functions | 21,101 | 19,029 | 18,180 | |||||||||
| Total(a) | 106,566 | 106,859 | 109,089 | |||||||||
| (a) |
Excluding employees of the Animal Health business: 4 employees in 2017, 6,957 in 2016 and 6,542 in 2015. |