Employee Benefits

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

Employee Benefits

Employee Benefits

17. Employee Benefits

	2017	2016	2015
	(€ in thousands)
Wages and salaries	11,855	10,184	7,128
Social security costs	1,285	1,093	596
Pension costs — defined contribution plans	860	764	478
Equity-settled share based payments	4,024	2,454	1,212
	18,024	14,495	9,414
Average number of employees for the period	139.9	133.4	86.1

Employees per activity at December 31 (converted to FTE):

	December 31, 2017	December 31, 2016	December 31, 2015
Research and Development	96.2	100.4	72.4
General and Administrative	34.0	32.9	27.1
Total number of employees at December 31 (converted to FTE)	130.2	133.3	99.5

Of all employees 125.2 FTE are employed in the Netherlands (2016: 128.3 FTE).

Included in the wages and salaries for 2017 is a credit of € 723,000  (2016: € 807,000,  2015: € 372,000) with respect to WBSO subsidies.