Chief executive officers leading South Korea's biggest businesses receive salaries that are on average 21.9-times higher than those of ordinary employees, a local market researcher said Sunday.
According to FN Guide, CEOs at the 30 largest companies in terms of market capitalization, took home substantially more pay than the average worker in 2016, with the gap widening to more than 50 to 60-fold in some cases. The data was based on 28 companies that released the salaries of their workers.
(Yonhap)
It said of companies checked, the biggest gap existed at Samsung Electronics whose Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun received a salary of 6.69 billion won ($5.86 million), the largest of any CEO in the country.
In comparison, the average pay at the world's largest smartphone and memory chipmaker stood at 107 million won.
Kim Tae-han, president of Samsung Biologics, reported a salary of 2.31 billion won, while the average for those working at the biopharmaceutical firm stood at 41 million won per annum.
The two companies are part of Samsung Group, South Korea's largest family-run conglomerate.
FN Guide said a gap exceeding 50-fold existed at LG Household & Health Care, a leading cosmetics and household goods maker, with 20 to 30 times difference being reported by such companies as LG Display and SK Innovation.
The latest findings said that while the gap is not pronounced in other companies, many CEOs like those heading KB Financial Group, Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp and Lotte Chemicals Corp. took home considerable sums of money that exceeded 10-times the average salary level of employees at the companies they managed. (Yonhap)