Executives still earned more than 15 times their workers’ salaries. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) — While the compensation gap between top earners and average employees at major South Korean companies narrowed slightly last year, executives still earned more than 15 times their workers’ salaries, according to a new analysis by Leaders Index.
The research firm’s study of 284 companies among Korea’s top 500 firms found that the highest-paid executives received an average of 1.45 billion won last year, down 1.3% from 1.47 billion won in the previous year. Meanwhile, average employee compensation, excluding unregistered executives, rose 3% to 95.1 million won from 92.3 million won.
The food and beverage industry showed the starkest disparity, with top executives earning 29.7 times the average worker’s salary. Retail followed at 22.8 times, pharmaceuticals at 22.2 times, IT and electronics at 21.7 times, and automobile manufacturers and suppliers at 20.6 times. Banking showed the smallest gap at 8.3 times, down from 8.6 times in 2023.
Executives still earned more than 15 times their workers’ salaries. (Image created by AI/ChatGPT)
CJ CheilJedang recorded the widest individual company gap, with Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik earning 8.17 billion won while average employees received 77.02 million won — a ratio of 106.1 to 1.
The highest individual compensation went to CJ Group Chairman Lee Jae-hyun, who received a total of 19.37 billion won from two group companies. Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin followed with 17.83 billion won from four affiliates, though this figure excludes unreported compensation from Hotel Lotte and Lotte Property & Development.
SK Energy led in average employee compensation, with workers earning 160.38 million won annually, up 5.2% from the previous year.
The study, which excluded retirement benefits but included stock options, analyzed companies that disclosed compensation data for executives earning more than 500 million won annually.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
