Incruit Surveyed 830 Office Workers
49.9% of Respondents "Participated in Salary Negotiations This Year"
Highest Rate in Public Enterprises, Followed by Large and Mid-Sized Companies
Citizens are hurrying on their way to work at the Gwanghwamun intersection in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jo Yong-jun
Among 10 office workers who completed salary negotiations this year, 6 were dissatisfied with the negotiation results.
According to the '2025 Salary Negotiation Results' survey conducted on 830 office workers by HR tech company Incruit on the 25th, about half of the respondents, 49.9%, had undergone salary negotiations this year. Among them, a total of 64.7% answered that they were dissatisfied with the negotiation results, with 29.0% saying 'very dissatisfied' and 35.7% saying 'somewhat dissatisfied.' The main reason for dissatisfaction was that the salary increase rate was lower than expected or that their salary was cut.
The percentage of workers who said their salary increased compared to last year was 66.7%, which is 1.7 percentage points lower than the previous year. Their average salary increase rate was 5.4%. On the other hand, the proportion of those whose salary was frozen or cut was 29.5% and 3.9%, respectively, with the percentage of salary cuts increasing by 1.6 percentage points from last year's 2.3%.
Looking at the proportion of those who conducted salary negotiations by company size, public enterprises and public institutions had the highest rate at 80.0%, followed by large companies (76.5%), mid-sized companies (73.0%), and small and medium-sized enterprises (60.4%). Incruit explained, "In the case of small and medium-sized enterprises, the proportion of respondents who reported a 'salary increase' fell by 6.3 percentage points compared to last year (66.8%)," adding, "The economic downturn seems to have had the most direct impact on salary negotiations for employees in small and medium-sized enterprises."
Additionally, when asked whether they applied for an adjustment during the salary negotiation process, 78.3% answered 'no.' The biggest reason for not applying for an adjustment was 'because it seemed unlikely that the salary would increase' (54.6%), while only 11.1% answered that they were 'satisfied with the negotiated salary.' Furthermore, 52.2% of office workers reported feeling an urge to quit after the salary negotiation, with more than half of the respondents falling into this category. Among them, 92.6% said they plan to attempt a job change due to the salary negotiation.
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