Wage Disparities Widen at Big Companies

The salary gap among employees at Korea's top 500 companies is widening, probably due in part to stock options given to executives, who are often the highest wage earners.

Market tracker Leaders Index said Tuesday it compared the salaries of workers at the companies and found that the highest-paid employees earned some W1.89 billion in average annual income last year, over 20 times more than the average income of other salaried workers, which was W90.6 million (US$1=W1,217).

The disparity was especially apparent in the food and beverage industry at 37.7 times, followed by the retail industry (36.9 times), the petrochemical industry (31 times) and the IT and electronics industry (27.6 times).

In contrast, the salary gap among bankers was lowest at just 7.8 times.

CJ was the most generous to its employees with the highest average paycheck of W200 million, followed by Meritz Securities (W108 million), Kakao (W172 million), Samsung Securities (W107 million) and KB Securities (W106 million).