People wear masks at Gwanghwamun Station in central Seoul on Jan. 27, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The average wage cut revealed by South Korean office workers whose wages were slashed in the aftermath of COVID-19 was 22 percent, a poll showed Thursday.
On the other hand, those who work for online distribution and communications companies said that sales rose, causing mixed emotions in different industries.
According to a survey of 449 office workers by online job portal Incruit, 40.8 percent of the respondents said their work or salary had changed since the beginning of the outbreak.
Among the changes and measures they experienced, “unpaid leave” was most mentioned, accounting for 36.1 percent.
Unpaid leave was followed by “temporary closure”, accounting for 24.5 percent, “wage reduction,” accounting for 13 percent, “advised to resign,” accounting for 6.5 percent, and “pay return,” accounting for 3.2 percent.
Those who said their wages had been cut saw their salary slashed by average of 22 percent. In addition, 38.5 percent of workers had to take average of two to four weeks of unpaid leave, and 30.8 percent had to take less than a week of unpaid leave.
In contrast, the remaining 18.7 percent of respondents said there have been changes since the virus outbreak, such as “increasing overtime” and “increasing weekend work,” accounting for 6.9 percent, and “payment of bonuses and additional salary,” accounting for 1.4 percent.
One can guess that workers are experiencing differences in workload and business performance. When Incruit conducted a crossover analysis of industries, there was a huge gap between companies.
When asked whether they experienced any changes in business results, 67.5 percent responded yes. Some 40.6 percent saw their sales on a downward trend, whole 26.9 percent saw their sales plummet.
In fact, it has been confirmed that 100 percent of those in the travel, aviation and duty-free sectors saw their sales take a nosedive.
Some 86.4 percent of those in the finance and insurance industry, 85.7 percent of those in the transportation industry, 80 percent of those in the lodging sector, and 72.7 percent of those in the performance, culture and art industry all saw their sales plunge way below the average decrease.
On the other hand, there were some industries that were booming, including online distribution and telecommunications.
They showed an unusual upward trend in sales, mentioning “increased sales” and “upward sales,” which accounted for 8.4 percent and 41.7 percent, respectively.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
