Korea’s small and medium-sized business employees receive 60 percent of the salaries of their peers at large companies on average, data indicated Thursday.

According to a report published by the Small and Medium Business Administration, average monthly pay for workers at small companies came to 2.93 million won ($2,670), while that at big companies reached 4.84 million won.


Workers at small construction companies suffered the widest pay disparity compared to the nation‘s construction giants. Their average monthly salary was 2.36 million won, less than half of larger company workers receive.

Manufacturing and health care businesses followed, showing 54.1 percent and 52.5 percent of pay gap respectively, depending on the company size.

Workers in other certain sectors received pay nearly equivalent to larger competitors’. Salaries of small electricity and water pipeline workers were 94.9 percent of those at big firms. Education services, finance and insurance followed.

National Assembly trade committee member Lee Che-ik suggested to “make the greatest efforts to narrow the pay gap,” or income polarization will be exacerbated further to drag down the nation’s economy.

By Song Ji-won (jiwon.song@heraldcorp.com)