Average Annual Salary of Top Executives: 441.4 Million Won

It was found out that the average annual salary of executive directors of the top 100 companies in Korea last year based on revenue was 441.4 million won, and that of salaried workers was 44.2 million won. “The Monthly CEO,” an economic magazine, reported the survey results on the average annual salary of employees of the top 100 listed companies on April 27 based on business reports of each company publicized by the Financial Supervisory Service’s Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer (DART) system.

It was Samsung Electronics that provided the highest annual salaries, and it topped the list with annual salaries of six executive directors amounting to 8.97 billion won each. This is an increase of 2.15 billion won from 6.82 billion won in 2003, excluding stock options. After Samsung Electronics came Samsung Corporation, (1.45 billion won), Samsung SDI (1.392 billion won), Hyundai Motors (1.166 billion won), and Shinsegae (1.054 billion won).

Also on the top 10 list of executive director annual salaries were as many as five Samsung subsidiaries, including Samsung Heavy Industries (1.02 billion won), and Samsung Techwin (906.7 million won).

It was Samsung Electronics that provided the highest annual salary per employee: 71.3 million won. Also on the top 10 list of annual company salaries per employee were SK Gas (67 million won), S-Oil (65.9 million won), E1 (65.6 million won), SK Corporation (64.2 million won), Hanwha Chemical Corporation (61 million won), and LG Petrochemical (58.9 million won). As many as six companies on the top ten list were all energy-related companies, which provided higher average annual salaries.

The average wage of executive directors for all the surveyed companies was higher that that of employees by about 9.9 times. As for Samsung Electronics, this ratio was higher by 125.8 times.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com