The widening wage gap between conglomerates and small and medium enterprises is hampering the latter from securing competitive human resources, leading to polarization of workers.

According to a recent survey, 1 in 4 new employees with a bachelor’s degree or higher quits within a year. And such early exits were three times more common at companies with less than 300 employees than at larger businesses.

These were the results of a recent survey conducted on 306 businesses nationwide by the Korea Employers’ Federation on their employment status as of this year. The departure ratio among new recruits who have graduated from college came at 27.7 percent, 2.5 percentage points higher than in 2014.

While the overall attrition rate dropped to 9.4 percent from 11.3 percent, it was the opposite for companies with less than 300 employees, with the ratio increasing to 32.5 percent from 31.6 percent.

The number of college graduates leaving before working a full year has continuously surged from 23.6 percent in 2012 to 25.2 percent in 2014. The situation was more frequent in smaller companies with less than 300 workers at 32.5 percent compared to 9.4 percent among companies with 300 or more employees. While the youth jobless rate has reached historic levels, SMEs have difficulty in finding appropriate talents.

The main reason is no doubt pay. Statistics Korea data earlier showed that full-time employees at businesses that hire more than 300 workers earned an average of 5 million won ($4,310) a month last year. In contrast, those working for firms hiring between five and 300 workers were paid 3.1 million won.

This means those working for SMEs are earning on average 62 percent of those working for conglomerates. The rate is the lowest since 2008, when Statistics Korea started compiling the data. Before the 1997 financial crisis, workers at SMEs were paid salaries on average 80 percent of those of conglomerate workers.

A private research firm’s report also showed that SME workers are paid on average 53 percent of the average salary of conglomerate workers in South Korea, compared with 74 percent in Germany, 82 percent in Japan, 85 percent in the U.K. and 90 percent in France.

Large firms enjoy higher profitability than SMEs in Korea. Some market observers share the view that the situation is sometimes attributable to unfair competition: Conglomerates can easily pressure subcontractors to cut supply prices of components.

Their lower profitability is causing low increase rate of annual wages or deferred payment.