Korea Exchange tops in salary despite low profit among state companies

Korea Exchange tops in salary despite low profit among state companies. November. 03, 2014 03:06. .

Statistics show that Korea Exchange pays the highest annual salary per employee of 112.44 million won (approx. 104,000 U.S. dollars) on average among 302 state-owned companies. Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) and Korea Eximbank jointly top in salary for the head of organization with 533.25 million won (approx. 496,000 dollars). However, most of the state-run companies that pay high salary show low performance in management or are heavily in debt, leading to the criticism that reckless management is a chronic issue of the state-owned companies.

According to the data that the Ministry of Strategy and Finance submitted to Saenuri Rep. Lee No-geun on Sunday, Korea Exchange whose average salary topped in 2013 ranked in the E level at bottom in the management evaluation of the state-owned businesses. Korea Securities Depository, which ranked in the second place in annual salary per employee with 110 million won, also ended up with D level. Among the state-run companies, three companies pay an annual salary of some 100 million won and 13 companies pay around 90 million won on average.

Seventeen state-run companies pay more than 300 million won for the head of the organization. Korea Development Bank and Korea Finance Corporation pay 498.04 million won to their CEOs, ranked in the third and fourth respectively, following the CEOs of IBK and Korea Eximbank. Korea Western Power Co., Ltd. which pays 305.71 million won to the CEO, ended up with D level in the management evaluation last year.

In addition, 13 state-owned companies pay more than 40 million won as the starting salary for newly-hired employees. Given that the starting annual salary at the most public companies is around 20 million won, inequality issue is raised. The state-run company that gives the highest starting salary is Koscom with 42.73 million won, followed by Korea Institute of Science and Technology with 42.64 million won, Korea Finance Corporation with 42.12 million won and Korea Information Society Development Institute with 41.96 million won.

Rep. Lee No-Geun said, “Although most of the state-run companies paying high annual salary show poor performance in the business management or have huge debt, they keep this practice of giving excessive salaries. It is urgent to correct such practices of the state-owned companies.”