"Average Annual Salary is 100 Million Won" 9 to 55 Companies 'Soar'... What Happened to Large Corporations in 4 Years

From 9 Companies in 2019 to 55 in 2023
Wage Gap Between Large Corporations and SMEs Widens Further

Last year, the number of companies among the top 100 by sales with an average employee salary exceeding 100 million KRW surpassed half. As the number of large corporations joining the '100 Million KRW Club' increased more than sixfold over the past five years, the wage gap between employees of large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is expected to widen further.

On the 31st, Yonhap News conducted a comprehensive analysis of the business reports of the top 100 non-financial listed companies based on consolidated sales and found that 55 companies had an average employee salary exceeding 100 million KRW last year. This means that more than half of domestic large corporations pay their employees an average salary of over 100 million KRW.

The number of top 100 companies by sales joining the '100 Million KRW Club' with an average employee salary exceeding 100 million KRW increased annually: 9 companies in 2019, 12 in 2020, 23 in 2021, 35 in 2022, 48 in 2023, and 55 last year. Last year, seven companies including Hyundai Glovis (100 million KRW), Hanwha Aerospace (118 million KRW), Samsung Electro-Mechanics (103 million KRW), and KT&G (107 million KRW) newly joined the club, marking a 6.1-fold increase compared to 2019, five years ago.

In particular, all of the top 10 companies by sales were confirmed to be members of the 100 Million KRW Club. Samsung Electronics recorded an average employee salary of 130 million KRW, Hyundai Motor 124 million KRW, SK Inc. 116 million KRW, Kia 136 million KRW, and LG Electronics 117 million KRW. SK Innovation (158 million KRW), POSCO Holdings (148 million KRW), HD Hyundai (159 million KRW), SK Hynix (117 million KRW), and Hyundai Mobis (135 million KRW) also had annual employee salaries exceeding 100 million KRW.

Lee Sang-ho, head of the Economic and Industrial Division at the Korea Economic Association, emphasized, "Due to the sustained high inflation until last year, wages at large corporations have continued to rise, but the wage increase at SMEs has not been significant, so the wage gap is expected to widen further. In addition to wage increases, more efforts should be made to improve productivity."