More than six in ten employees who negotiated their salaries this year expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — More than six in ten employees who negotiated their salaries this year expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome, according to a recent survey.
HR technology firm Incruit conducted a survey of 830 workers regarding their 2025 salary negotiations. The findings, released on Tuesday, revealed that 49.9% of respondents engaged in salary discussions, and among them, 64.7% were dissatisfied with the results—29.0% being “very dissatisfied” and 35.7% “somewhat dissatisfied.”
The primary reason cited for dissatisfaction was lower-than-expected salary increases or even reductions. Compared to the previous year, 66.7% of workers reported an increase in their salary, a 1.7 percentage-point decline from 2024. The average salary increase for those who received a raise stood at 5.4%.
Meanwhile, 29.5% of respondents reported salary freezes, while 3.9% experienced pay cuts—an increase from the previous year’s 2.3%.
By company size, public enterprises and government agencies had the highest proportion of employees completing salary negotiations, at 80.0%, followed by large corporations (76.5%), mid-sized companies (73.0%), and small businesses (60.4%).
Incruit noted that salary increases among employees at small businesses dropped by 6.3 percentage points from the previous year’s 66.8%, attributing the trend to worsening economic conditions.
Despite dissatisfaction, most employees refrained from requesting salary adjustments, with 78.3% stating they did not attempt negotiations. The top reason given was skepticism that their salary would increase (54.6%), while only 11.1% said they were satisfied with their agreed salary.
Salary negotiations also impacted job retention. More than half of respondents (52.2%) reported experiencing the urge to resign following their salary discussions. Of those, 92.6% indicated they planned to seek new job opportunities due to dissatisfaction with their salary negotiations.
As economic uncertainty continues, salary expectations and workforce mobility are likely to remain key concerns for employees and businesses alike in the coming year.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
