Korean Air Employees Up 12.8%, Individual Up 64%
Received 4.2 Billion KRW from Hanjin KAL, 3.9 Billion KRW from Korean Air
Cho Won-tae, chairman of Hanjin Group, received a total salary of 8.2 billion KRW last year from Korean Air and Hanjin KAL. This amount increased by more than 1.5 times compared to the previous year. It was 82 times the average annual salary of Korean Air employees and the wage growth rate was close to five times.
According to the business reports disclosed by Korean Air and Hanjin KAL on the 13th, Chairman Cho's total salary last year was 8.15703 billion KRW, an increase of 57.3% compared to the previous year.
Chairman Cho received a total of 3.91715 billion KRW from Korean Air, where he serves as CEO, including a salary of 3.27755 billion KRW and a bonus of 639.6 million KRW. This represents a 64% increase compared to the previous year.
Korean Air explained, "To respond to the COVID-19 crisis, part of the compensation was returned until 2022, and management performance bonuses paid to general employees were also returned, but normal compensation has been paid since last year," adding, "Executive compensation, which had been frozen for a long time, was adjusted and management performance bonuses were paid, resulting in a one-time increase in compensation last year."
However, during the same period, the average employee salary rose from 89.56 million KRW to 101.04 million KRW, an increase of 12.8%, which is about one-fifth of Chairman Cho's salary growth rate. Even during 2020 and 2021, when the impact of COVID-19 remained, Chairman Cho received 1.73241 billion KRW from Korean Air. The average employee salary during the same period was 69.14 million KRW and 68.19 million KRW, respectively.
Chairman Cho also received a total of 4.24 billion KRW from Hanjin KAL, including a salary of 3.675 billion KRW and a bonus of 565 million KRW. His salary also increased by more than 1.5 times (a growth rate of 51.6%) compared to the previous year. In 2021, he received 1.698 billion KRW, and in 2020, 1.366 billion KRW.
Hanjin KAL stated, "In the spirit of sharing the pain caused by the deteriorating business environment due to COVID-19, the president-level compensation was maintained even after the chairman's inauguration in April 2019," and added, "Performance bonuses for 2021 and 2022, which were deferred in March last year, were paid, and management performance bonuses reflecting the business results of subsidiaries were paid for the first time since the establishment of the holding company."
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