[New Word Dictionary] Nekarakubae - The Workplace Admired by the MZ Generation

Nekarakuba is a shortened term combining the first letters of Naver, Kakao, Line, Coupang, and Baedal Minjok, referring to the most desired companies among job seekers recently. Illustration by artist Oh Seong-su

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] The ‘lying down’ emoticon that recently appeared on Samsung Electronics’ internal bulletin board has become a hot topic. This emoticon, which emerged amid difficulties in wage adjustment negotiations, continued to be posted as a protest message despite the news of an average 7.5% wage increase?the highest in eight years. According to the Financial Supervisory Service disclosure, the average annual salary of Samsung Electronics employees was 127 million KRW last year, ranking first in South Korea. However, the domino effect of wage increases, which began as a competitive talent war among IT and gaming companies, is causing a new sense of deprivation among employees of large manufacturing companies like Samsung Electronics, who have maintained higher wages compared to competitors to prevent talent loss. So-called ‘Pangyo companies’ such as Naver, Kakao, and NCSoft have meanwhile grown rapidly into companies with average annual salaries exceeding 100 million KRW. Additionally, the controversy over SK Hynix’s performance bonuses has sparked dissatisfaction among young employees regarding the compensation systems and treatment in large corporations. To soothe this, large companies have hurriedly taken steps to address the issue. LG Electronics decided on a 9.0% salary increase this year, up from 3.8% last year, and Hyundai Motor Group promised to establish performance bonus payment criteria and advance the payment schedule. Nevertheless, among junior employees in large corporations, complaints continue that “while company performance is soaring, employee treatment does not correspond, and hearing about wage increases or stock options at IT companies causes feelings of deprivation.”

‘Nekarakuba’ is a term combining the first letters of Naver, Kakao, Line, Coupang, and Baedal Minjok, referring to the most desired companies among recent job seekers. Recently, the gaming company Krafton, which raised the starting salary for developers to 60 million KRW and provided a total of 30 billion KRW in incentives to employees, joined this group, reshuffling the salary hierarchy to ‘Knekaraku.’ As competition for recruiting developers intensifies, there are calls to add companies like Danggeun Market, Toss, and Zigbang to the list. With the wage increase trend in the IT industry now joined by large corporations, some argue that industry and timing-specific factors must be considered. An industry HR official said, “While objections to unreasonable performance bonus controversies are understandable, it seems excessive to generalize the remarkable growth of game and IT companies due to the COVID-19-driven non-face-to-face boom and their high operating profit ratios relative to sales to manufacturing-centered companies. The burden of rising labor costs could potentially lead to reduced new hiring.”

Usage Example

A: Samsung Electronics is number one again in average salary this time, right?
B: Probably. But Krafton, the company that made PUBG, raised the base salary over 50 million KRW. For developers, it’s 60 million KRW.
A: Pangyo really is a different world. I heard that at Nekarakuba companies, even fifth-year employees often earn over 100 million KRW.
B: Yeah, I should have learned coding too. My younger sibling tried to double major in software, and the number of applicants exploded.
A: Now it’s the era where instead of apologizing for being a liberal arts major, you apologize for not learning coding! ㅠㅠ