South Korean companies' average wage increased 8.2 percent in 2014 from a year earlier due mainly to a change in the calculation of salary, a poll showed Sunday.

The survey on 369 companies that concluded this year's wage and collective bargaining agreement talks, revealed a rise in salaries that outpaced the average 4 percent gains tallied in 2013.

The Korea Employers Federation (KEF), which took the survey, said the spike comes mainly because many of the companies accepted the Supreme Court's ruling made late last year that states all fixed bonuses should be counted as part of standard wages. 

This ruling expands the scope of standard wages that can affect allowances given out to workers for overtime and the size of severance pay employees receive when they retire. 

On the other hand, average wage gains for companies that have not included regular bonuses as part of the regular pay, stood at 4.2 percent, a marginal increase from the year before.

In particular, among large companies that employee more than 1,000 workers and incorporated regular bonuses as part of the standard pay, wage hikes reached 26.7 percent.

The federation, meanwhile, said that during negotiations, workers on average demanded a hike of over 8 percent, compared to 2.7 percent offered by management.

It said reaching settlements on wage talks took an average 2.6 months in 2014, up from 1.9 months tallied for last year.

The average wage for a university graduate hired by a company for the first time this year stood at a little over 2.78 million won (US$2,500) this year, up 4.7 percent from 2.66 million won in 2013. (Yonhap)