LG·DL Jiju Envy... Employees' Average Annual Salary Reaches 200 Million KRW

SK Square Leads with 214 Million
Samsung Electronics Slightly Decreases Compared to Last Year

Despite the global economic recession and crises, the number of large corporations with an average annual salary exceeding 100 million KRW significantly increased last year, centered on companies that posted strong performance. Companies with an average annual salary exceeding 200 million KRW also emerged.

On the morning of the 21st, when the temperature in Seoul dropped to 14 degrees, office workers wearing coats are heading to work at the Sejongno intersection in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jin-Hyung Kang aymsdream@

According to business reports disclosed by each company on the 26th, SK Square, excluding registered executives but including unregistered executives, had an average annual salary of 214 million KRW for its 84 employees last year. Even excluding 12 unregistered executives whose average individual salary reached 620 million KRW, the average was still 157.02 million KRW. SK Square, an investment specialist company spun off from SK Telecom in November 2021, surpassed SK Telecom’s average annual salary of 145 million KRW in its first year of annual business report disclosure.

Additionally, last year, the average annual salary of employees at LG Group’s holding company ㈜LG and DL Group’s holding company DL㈜ were recorded at 201 million KRW each. Compared to the previous year, ㈜LG rose by 48.9%, and DL㈜ increased by 6.9%.

The petroleum industry, which generally has higher salary levels than other sectors, also ranked high. Last year’s average annual salaries were S-OIL (Sseu Oil) 171.07 million KRW, SK Energy 157 million KRW, GS Caltex 153.97 million KRW, and SK Innovation, the parent company of SK Energy, 153 million KRW.

S-OIL’s average salary rose 49% from 114.78 million KRW in 2021. GS Caltex and SK Energy also increased by 19.8% and 45.9%, respectively, compared to the previous year. This was influenced by increased performance bonuses due to significant improvement in results in 2021 compared to the poor performance in 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Samsung Electronics recorded an average annual salary of 135 million KRW last year, slightly down from 144 million KRW the year before. Other Samsung affiliates include Samsung SDS at 131 million KRW, Cheil Worldwide at 127 million KRW, Samsung C&T at 125 million KRW, Samsung Engineering at 120 million KRW, and Samsung SDI at 116 million KRW.

LG Electronics surpassed an average annual salary of 100 million KRW for the first time last year, increasing 15.5% from 97 million KRW the previous year to 112 million KRW. Among LG affiliates, LG Chem (120 million KRW) and LG Uplus (110 million KRW) also exceeded 100 million KRW, while LG Energy Solution approached 100 million KRW at 99 million KRW.

Hyundai Motor Group affiliates such as Hyundai Motor (105 million KRW), Kia (112 million KRW), Hyundai Mobis (108 million KRW), Hyundai Steel (107 million KRW), and Hyundai Wia (102 million KRW) also surpassed 100 million KRW.

The number of large corporations joining the "100 Million KRW Salary Club" is increasing every year. According to a survey by the Korea Economic Research Institute under the Federation of Korean Industries, among 85 companies that disclosed business reports out of the top 100 non-financial listed companies by sales, the number of companies with an average employee salary exceeding 100 million KRW increased from 8 in 2019 to 10 in 2020, and 21 in 2021.