Annual Salary for Company Executives Revealed

The average annual salary of registered executives working at Korea’s top ten companies was more than 700 million won last year. According to the Financial Supervisory Service, officially registered executives from 67 listed companies on the Korea Exchange (KRX) got paid 731.9 million won on average per year, up 6.91 percent from a year ago. The companies surveyed excluded companies whose fiscal year ended in March and those that were newly listed on the KRX among 78 affiliates of ten major groups.

Executives are classified into two types, registered or non-registered. Former senior officials are selected at shareholders’ meeting. They exert voting rights when taking part in board of directors’ meetings, and thus regarded important.

The number of the posted executives trails that of non-registered ones at most companies. Their duties, however, are more important than those of non-listed executives. For this reason, their salaries outstrip the rest.

Their salaries often do not include amounts of money related to company tasks. The actual receipt of salaries is thus inconsistent with that received on paper.

The annual salary for registered executives of Samsung Electronics was the highest with 4.3 billion won, down 47 percent from an average of 8.15 billion won in 2005. It was followed by 3.07 billion won for SK Group, 2.45 billion won for LG Group, 2.31 billion won for Hyundai Motors, 2.05 billion won for Samsung Corporation, 1.99 billion won for GS Holdings, 1.63 billion won for GS construction, and 1.32 billion won for Kia Motors.

Those exceeding an annual average of 1 billion won included 1.26 billion won for Samsung SDI, 1.23 billion won for Hyundai Steel, 1.21 billion won for SK Telecom, 1.12 billion won for Hyundai Mobis, and 1.05 billion won for SKC.

By group, the company that topped the list was Samsung group. Their salaries averaged 1.08 billion won, followed by 953 million won for GS, 820 million won for Hyundai and Kia Motors, 742 million won for SK, 591 million won for LG, 491 million won for Hanjin, 458 million won for Hanwha, 457 million won for Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., 389 million won for Doosan, and 240 million won for Lotte Group.

Samsung group’s executive salaries declined 16.74 percent from the previous year. On the other hand, Hyundai Motors and SK Group salaries went up 48.22 percent and 58.69 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, sales revenues of Korea’s top ten conglomerates edged up 5.91 percent compared to 2005, but net profits dropped 12.04 percent.

aryssong@donga.com