Salary gap widens between conglomerates and small firms

Big conglomerates will increase salaries for new employees in the latter half of this year while most small or mid-cap companies plan to maintain the same level as before.

The average annual salary of new employees to be hired in the latter half this year will be increased by 5 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to Job Korea, an online job search portal. The job portal researched 206 companies that plan to hire four-year-university graduates as new employees within the year.

Among the companies, big conglomerates plan to offer an annual salary of 35.81 million won to new employees, which is a 3.1-per cent increase compared to the same period last year when it was 34.73 million won.

Government-run corporations will raise salaries by the largest amount, 9.3 per cent. The research showed that 42 public enterprises plan to offer an annual salary of 28.29 million won in the latter half this year, up from 25.88 million won last year. Most of them will be increasing salaries since they cut them after the 2009 financial crisis.

Foreign companies, which made up 39 among the researched firms, will raise salaries by 7.6 per cent from 29.09 million won last year to 31.30 million won. It is notable that the salary for new employees surpassed 30 million won in foreign companies for the first time.

Small-and mid-sized companies, on the other hand, will maintain the same level in terms of new employees' salaries. The average salary of 285 researched small and mid-cap companies will be 22.75 million won, while it was 22.79 million won last year. The salary gap between big conglomerates widened to 13.06 million won.

"The gap seems to have increased as big conglomerates plan to hire more to take corporate responsibilities as the economic depression continues while most of the small and mid-cap companies have relatively less capital to invest in human resources at a time like this," said an official at Job Korea.

Among big conglomerates, shipbuilding and heavy industries plan to give the biggest salaries to new employees, 43.21 million won on average; followed by the financial industry, 39 million won; machinery and steel sector, 35 million won; auto industry, 34.94 million won; and the petrochemistry industry, 34.81 million won.