(image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jul. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — The average annual wage for a bank employee working at South Korea’s top four lenders is nearing the 100 million won (US$89,700) mark, market data showed Sunday.
Assessment of quarterly reports by KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank and KEB Hana Bank showed that in the first three months of this year, employees each received 26.8 million won in salary, up 4 percent from the previous year.
In 2017, the average wage of these four lenders stood at just over 90 million won. Numbers for this year are likely to surpass 94 million won.
The three-month total is larger than the average annual wage of people working in the country’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which stands at 25 million won.
The banks said the increase in the first quarter is linked to bonuses employees received for last year’s performance, with KB Kookmin giving bonuses equal to 200 percent of a person’s basic pay last year followed by a further 100 percent in early 2018. Woori Bank said it gave bonuses equal to 11.1 percent of a employee’s pay, while KEB Hana and Shinhan all provided extra compensation for employees.
Last year, banks posted nearly 30 trillion won in profits, mainly thanks to interest on loans they provided to individuals and companies.
Besides overall pay, the latest data showed that bank CEOs earned an average of 1 billion won per year, making them one of the highest paid salaried worker groups in the country.
(Yonhap)
