(image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Mar. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – A stark divide exists between the paychecks of top executives and ordinary employees at South Korea’s major conglomerates, with a new analysis revealing that executives earn on average more than 11 times the salary of regular workers.
According to data compiled by Chaebul.com from the 2023 fiscal year business reports of 162 listed companies belonging to the country’s top 20 corporate groups, the average annual compensation for registered executive officers was 1.09 billion won, while the average annual salary for employees stood at just 99.6 million won.
The figures examined compensation for full-time executive officers, excluding outside directors and members of the audit committee.
The analysis showed that the pay gap between executives and workers was widest at Shinsegae Group, where the average executive compensation of 1.05 billion won was a staggering 19.3 times higher than the 54.4 million won average for employees.
Samsung Group ranked second with a 18.9-fold difference, followed by CJ Group (17.1 times), LG Group and Lotte Group (15.9 times each), GS Group (14 times), Doosan Group (13.8 times), Hyundai Motor Group (12.9 times), and HD Hyundai Group (12.6 times).
At the other end of the spectrum, the pay disparity was smallest at NongHyup Financial Group, where executives earned only 1.8 times more than average employees. Executives there received 222 million won on average, compared to 124 million won for workers.
Other groups with relatively narrow pay gaps included Kakao (3.5 times), KT (4.1 times), DL (5 times), Chunghung Construction (5.1 times), and HMM (5.3 times).
Under South Korean law, conglomerates with assets of 5 trillion won (US$3.7 billion) or higher are obligated to disclose the status of their businesses, along with details of large-scale internal trade. (Image courtesy of Pixabay)
In terms of total compensation, Samsung Group executives received the highest average pay at 2.21 billion won, outpacing LG Group at 1.58 billion won, Hyundai Motor Group at 1.49 billion won, Doosan Group at 1.19 billion won, and HD Hyundai Group at 1.16 billion won.
NongHyup Financial Group paid its executives the least, with an average of 222 million won, followed by KT at 291.7 million won and Kakao at 328.3 million won.
On the employee side, NongHyup workers had the highest average annual salary at 124 million won, trailed by HMM at 123.3 million won, SK Group at 117.5 million won, Samsung at 117.4 million won, and Hyundai Motor at 115.3 million won.
Shinsegae Group employees received the lowest average pay of 54.4 million won, with CJ Group at 55.3 million won, Lotte at 63.3 million won, GS Group at 67.6 million won, and KT at 70.17 million won also ranking low.
Furthermore, due to strong economic headwinds, the average compensation for registered executives and employee salaries at the top 20 groups’ listed firms decreased by 7.6% and 0.5% respectively compared to a year earlier.
Notably, Samsung Electronics saw its average executive pay drop by around 24% from 5.79 billion won to 4.4 billion won, while the average employee salary fell 11% from 135 million won to 120 million won.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
