Female employees at Hyundai Motor, the nation’s top carmaker, are paid the most, but they are still not behind their male colleagues, according to data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service on Friday.

A survey of the nation’s top 500 companies on employee payment last year showed that the average annual pay for female employees at Hyundai Motor last year was 78 million won ($76,000), the highest amount followed by 74 million won at SK Telecom and 73 million won both at Samsung Electronics and Kia Motors.

The survey result beat market expectations, considering the scarcity of female workers at Korean carmakers.

There were 57,052 men and 2,575 women working at Hyundai Motor at the end of 2012, with female workers making up less than 5 percent. The female workforce at its smaller affiliate Kia was a tiny 2.5 percent of the total.

There was a gender gap in pay in most companies surveyed, including Hyundai. Female workers at Hyundai were paid about 20 percent less than what their male peers earned last year.

In the meantime, Hyundai Motor Group, which owns the Hyundai and Kia brands and other nine affiliates, reported a median pay of 75.7 million won last year, up 6.7 percent from a year ago. The figure was 14.2 million won higher than the average of the 500 companies.

The flagship units of Hyundai and Kia were the highest-paying affiliates with 95 million won, followed by Hyundai Rotem (86.3 million won) Hyundai Mobis (83.6 million won) and Hyundai Steel (81.2 million won).

The group’s finance units such as Hyundai Card and Hyundai Capital were among the lowest.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)