State-owned company workers get paid 24% more than Samsung Electronics

First year salary of new employees at state-owned financial enterprises surged more than 30 percent over the past two years. Existing employees at state-owned companies were paid 24 percent higher than those at Samsung Electronics.

According to Alio, a public enterprise information data provider, and the Financial Supervisory Service`s electronic disclosure system, average annual salary at nine state-owned financial enterprises under the Financial Services Commission stood at 87 million won (79,343 U.S. dollars). The companies include Korea Technology Finance Corporation, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation, KOSCOM, Korea Exchange, Korea Securities Depository, Korea Asset Management Corporation, Korea Finance Corporation, and Korea Housing Finance Corporation.

Korea Exchange, dubbed "God-given jobs," paid the highest at 114 million won (103,967 dollars). State-owned securities firms got paid around 100 million won (91,199 dollars), with Korea Securities Depository paying 101 million won (92,111 dollars) and KOSCOM at 95 million won (86,639 dollars).

The annual average salary at these nine enterprises was higher by 17 million won (15,503 dollars), or 24.3 percent, than the average 70 million won (63,839 dollars) earned by 90,000 employees at Samsung Electronics last year. Average length of service at state-owned companies was 17.4 years for Korea Exchange and 16.5 years for Korea Securities Depository, nearly double Samsung Electronics` nine years. State-owned financial enterprises were paying higher than private companies while job stability was also significantly higher.

The average first year salary of newly employed at the nine state-owned companies was 38 million won (34,655 dollars) last year. This is up 31 percent from 29 million won (26,447 dollars) paid in 2010, a higher pace of rise compared with the 4-5 percent rise recently being posted at private companies. Korea Deposit and Insurance Corporation had the highest new employee annual salary at 43 million won (39,215 dollars), followed by Korea Finance Corporation at 42 million won (38,303 dollars), and Korea Exchange and Korea Securities Depository at 38 million won (34,655 dollars).

Salary at state-owned financial enterprises hasn`t been as this high before. The previous Lee Myung-bak administration`s public enterprise reform measures and the global financial crisis led state-owned financial enterprises cut up to 20 percent in salary in 2009. The average annual salary at the nine state-owned financial enterprises stagnated at 80 million won (72,959 dollars) between 2008 and 2010. However, as labor unions and employees started to request higher salary toward the end of Lee`s presidency, annual salary at state-owned financial enterprises came to surpass pre-crisis levels.

Experts say state-owned financial enterprises maintain dominant positions at respective markets, while some heads of these firms accepted labor unions` demands to calm them, which led to a high salary structure. Ha Joon-gyeong, an economics professor at Hanyang University, said, "State-owned companies earn profits from non-market factors such as monopoly and regulations, which necessitates further supervision on them.