By Jane Han
Staff Reporter

Seoul's fancy skyscrapers and hustle and bustle is conventionally equated with high salaries, but a newly released tally shows that, contrary to popular belief, South Jeolla Province is the highest-paying region in the country.

According to Saramin, an online recruitment site, employees working in the southwestern province were paid an average salary of 68.85 million won ($53,400) per year in 2008.

This is almost double the amount earned by North Chungcheong Province workers, the lowest-paid bunch in the country, who made 38.94 million won last year.

Saramin's analysis of South Korea's top 1,000 companies' salary reports indicated that after South Jeolla, Daejeon (54.75 million won), Ulsan (52.66 million won), South Gyeongsang Province (50.25 million won) and South Chungcheong Province (49.81 million won) were the best-paying regions.

Then came Seoul with an average salaried worker bringing home 48.72 million won per year.

Behind the capital city were Gwangju, Incheon, Gangwon, Busan, North Gyeongsang Province, Daegu, Gyeonggi and North Jeolla Province, all paying in the range of 42 to 47 million won annually, the report said.

Saramin attributed South Jeolla and Daejeon's high rankings to the large number of oil-related companies operating in those areas, including GS Caltex, LG Chem and Hanwha Chemical.

``The high number of well-paying oil firms and a comparatively fewer number of working population drove up their average figures,'' said a Saramin official.

The report also showed that the average salary for a man was almost 20 million won higher than that of women. Men earned 51.48 million won, while women made 31.78 million won.

Male professionals turned out to be best compensated in South Jeolla, where they received an average of 71 million won per year, followed by Daejeon, Seoul and Ulsan.

In the meantime, women's pay was highest in Daejeon with 39 million won, followed by Ulsan, South Jeolla and Gangwon.

The salary difference between men and women was the highest in South Jeolla and Seoul, where men took home 36 and 21 million won more than their female counterparts last year, respectively.

jhan@koreatimes.co.kr