Vice Chairman Jo Hyunsang vs Chairman Shin Dongbin... Who Was the Highest-Paid Business Leader Last Year?

Cho Hyunsang, Vice Chairman of HS Hyosung, received 32.3 billion KRW including retirement benefits
Shin Dongbin, Chairman of Lotte Group, ranked first with 21.6 billion KRW in actual annual salary

Last year, among the heads of major domestic groups, Cho Hyun-sang, Vice Chairman of HS Hyosung, received the highest compensation. However, based on actual annual salary excluding retirement benefits, Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group, ranked first.

Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group (left), Cho Hyun-sang, Vice Chairman of HS Hyosung

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 4th, Vice Chairman Cho received a total compensation of approximately 32.38 billion KRW, including 4.39035 billion KRW from HS Hyosung and 27.992 billion KRW from Hyosung. In July last year, Hyosung Group split into the holding company Hyosung and the newly established holding company HS Hyosung, and Cho retired from Hyosung. In this process, Cho received a retirement allowance of 17.192 billion KRW and a special merit payment of 8.5 billion KRW from Hyosung. Excluding these, Cho's actual annual salary was about 15.1 billion KRW.

Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group, received a total of 21.653 billion KRW from seven affiliates including Lotte Holdings, Lotte Chemical, Lotte Shopping, and Lotte Wellfood. This amount increased by 1.72% compared to the previous year (21.285 billion KRW). Specifically, he received a total of 5.972 billion KRW from Lotte Holdings, including a salary of 3.8 billion KRW and a bonus of 2.17 billion KRW. He also received compensation from Lotte Chemical (3.8 billion KRW), Lotte Shopping (1.964 billion KRW), Lotte Wellfood (2.65 billion KRW), Lotte Chilsung Beverage (3.493 billion KRW), Hotel Lotte (2.423 billion KRW), and Lotte Property & Development (1.396 billion KRW).

Lee Jae-hyun, Chairman of CJ Group, received a total of 19.374 billion KRW, an increase of about 95% compared to the previous year (9.936 billion KRW). Chairman Lee received 15.63 billion KRW from CJ and 3.74 billion KRW from CJ CheilJedang. CJ operates a long-term performance-based incentive system every three years, and last year’s incentives reflected performance from 2021 to 2023. Due to poor performance, he did not receive compensation from CJ ENM.

Kim Seung-yeon, Chairman of Hanwha Group, received a total of 13.98 billion KRW from four companies: Hanwha, Hanwha Solutions, Hanwha Aerospace, and Hanwha Life. This represents a 29.4% increase from the previous year (10.8 billion KRW). The increase was influenced by his appointment as Chairman of Hanwha Aerospace last year, which added another affiliate from which he received compensation.

In addition, Chung Eui-sun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, received 11.518 billion KRW, down 5.6% from the previous year. Cho Won-tae, Chairman of Hanjin Group, received 10.212 billion KRW, and Koo Kwang-mo, Chairman of LG Group, received 8.177 billion KRW. Chung Yong-jin, Chairman of Shinsegae Group, received 3.609 billion KRW from Emart.