`Korean College Grads` Starting Salaries Too High`

A report released yesterday said the starting salaries of Korean college graduates are excessively high compared to major economies worldwide.

The study was conducted by the Korea Employers Federation on the starting salaries of college graduates in major economies. The average first-year salary of Korean college graduates with full-time jobs was 25,605 U.S. dollars based on the average exchange rate last year (929.2 won to the dollar), 27.9 percent higher than the average income of 20,016 dollars.

The average initial salary of Japanese college graduates was 24,785 dollars, 980 dollars less than that of Korea. The figure for Japan was 72.3 percent of the country`s per-capita income of 34,260 dollars.

The average starting salary of an American college graduate was 43,204 dollars and that of a British diploma receiver was 42,480 dollars. The U.S. figure, however, accounted for only 94.5 percent of average income and Britain`s 92.2 percent.

Taking inflation into account, the average starting salary of a Japanese college graduate increased only 1.7 percent a year between 1997 and last year, whereas that of a Korean graduate jumped 25.9 percent, or 15 times higher than Japan`s rise over the same period.

The average starting salary of a college graduate in a Korean financial company was 33,514 dollars, 50.5 percent higher than in Japan (22,273 dollars). The average starting salary of a college graduate in a Korean company with more than 1,000 employees was 29,806 dollars, 18 percent higher than Japan`s (25,256 dollars).

tesomiom@donga.com