[Asia Economy Reporter Bu Aeri] The average annual salary of employees at the five major commercial banks all exceeded 100 million KRW, and the average salary of the top 10% of employees approached 200 million KRW.
According to the total salary data of major commercial banks received by Yoon Chang-hyun, a member of the People Power Party, on the 15th, the average total salary (including performance bonuses) of employees at the five major commercial banks?Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NongHyup?exceeded 100 million KRW for the first time in 2021.
Kookmin Bank had the highest average salary at 110.74 million KRW, followed by Shinhan Bank at 105.29 million KRW, Hana Bank at 105.25 million KRW, Woori Bank at 101.71 million KRW, and NongHyup Bank at 101.62 million KRW.
In 2021, the average salary of the top 10% of employees was close to 200 million KRW.
Kookmin Bank was at 197.84 million KRW, Hana Bank at 195.53 million KRW, Shinhan Bank at 192.27 million KRW, Woori Bank at 185.27 million KRW, and NongHyup Bank at 178.31 million KRW.
Even excluding the basic wage increase effect, the average salary in 2022 is expected to increase further. As the five major banks are projected to have achieved record-high performance last year, banks that have completed collective bargaining have started raising performance bonuses.
In the case of NongHyup Bank, the performance bonus payment ratio compared to the base salary (ordinary wage) was raised from 350% in 2021 to 400% in 2022, and Shinhan Bank increased it from 300% in 2021 to 361% in 2022 (including 61% employee stock ownership). Kookmin Bank lowered the performance bonus ratio from 300% to 280% but decided to pay a special incentive of 3.4 million KRW, resulting in an actual increase in the amount employees receive.
Accordingly, financial authorities also plan to review improvements to the performance-based compensation system in the banking sector.
Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, recently urged at an executive meeting, "Please continue efforts to improve the performance-based compensation system together with the banking sector so that the system does not overly focus on short-term performance, which could lead to neglect of internal controls and risk management in the mid-to-long term, causing financial accidents and other problems."
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