Additional information 334 Property, plants and equipment  Employees and labor relations In the United States, Aegon owns many of the buildings that the company uses in the normal course of its business, primarily as offices.  Aegon owns 16 offices located throughout the United States with a total square footage of 2.0 million. Aegon also leases space for  various offices located throughout the United States under long-term leases with a total square footage of 1.1 million. Aegon’s  principal offices are located in Baltimore, Maryland; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Los Angeles, California; St. Petersburg, Florida; Plano & Dallas,  Texas; Harrison, New York; Little Rock, Arkansas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Exton, PA. Other principal offices owned by Aegon are located in The Hague, the Netherlands; Budapest, Hungary; and Madrid, Spain. Aegon owns  its headquarters and leases other offices in the Netherlands (Leeuwarden), the United Kingdom and Canada under long-term leases.  Aegon believes that its properties are adequate to meet its current needs. At the end of 2013, Aegon had 26,981 employees of which were 4,753 agent-employees. Approximately 46% are employed in the  Americas, 17% in the Netherlands, 9% in the United Kingdom and 28% in New Markets. Under Dutch law, members of the Central Works Council responsible for Aegon in the Netherlands are elected by Aegon the Netherlands’  employees. The Central Works Council has certain defined powers at the level of the Dutch subsidiary company Aegon Nederland N.V.,  including the right to make non-binding recommendations for appointments to its Supervisory Board and the right to enter objections  against proposals for appointments to that Supervisory Board. Moreover, the Central Works Council of Aegon the Netherlands is to be  consulted as regards a nomination for appointment pertaining to one seat on the Supervisory Board of Aegon. All of Aegon’s employees in the Netherlands, other than senior management, are covered by collective labor agreements, which are  generally renegotiated annually on an industry wide basis. Individual companies then enter into employment agreements with their  employees based on the relevant collective agreement. Since its founding, Aegon has participated in collective negotiations in the  insurance industry and has based its employment agreements with its employees on the relevant collective agreement. The collective  agreements are generally for a duration of one year. Aegon has experienced no significant strike, work stoppage or labor dispute in  recent years. The number of employees per geographical area was: See Note 14 of the notes to the consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report for a description of share-based payments  to employees. Annual Report 2013 2013 2012 2011 Americas 12,256 11,967 12,242 The Netherlands 4,584 4,930 5,166 United Kingdom 2,400 2,793 3,203 New Markets 7,651 7,160 8,659 26,891 26,850 29,270 Of which agent 4,753 4,402 5,948 Of which Aegon's share of employees in joint ventures and associates 1,462 1,546 1,073