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Among 88 firms, Hana Securities gives biggest paychecks
By Park Si-soo
If salary is your primary yardstick when choosing job in Korea, Hana Daetoo Securities is the best choice. It paid a whopping 115 million won ($97,000) on average to employees last year, according to the firm’s latest report.
Hana came first out of 88 big Korean companies in an analysis of their 2011 performance by Job Korea, a leading online job portal site.
Hana paid 144 million won on average to its male employees, while female employees were given 62 million won. The company explained the wide gap was due mainly to women working in low-paying positions, who deny the possibility of gender discrimination being a factor in compensation paid.
Insiders say those who perform best are paid up to 1 billion won a year, but the work is extremely stressful so they usually retire in their early 40s.
Korean Re, a reinsurance firm, came second paying an average salary of 90 million ㅡ 98 million won for male employees and 70 million won for females.
Hyundai Motor came third with an average salary of 89 million won ㅡ 90 million won for men and 71 million for women ㅡ and Yeochun NCC, a petrochemical firm that produces ethylene, propylene, and benzene among others, came next with 87 million won on average ㅡ 88.02 million won for men and 40 million for women.
Samsung Electronics ranked 12nd with 77.65 million won paid on average. The world’s leading IT giant also showed a wide salary gap by gender ㅡ 88.6 million won for men and 53.5 million won for women. Another IT giant LG Electronics took quite a low place on the list, 25th. It paid 71 million won on average with 74 million won for men and 53 million won for women.
Yeochun NCC was crowned the company with the best job security. Its employees work for the company for 19.5 years on average. The Yeosu-based petrochemical firm has roughly 800 employees. Job Korea said the firm covers all tuition fees employees’ children and provides exceptional welfare to keep its turnover rate low.
“Most positions in our company require ample knowledge and experience. So we try our best to keep them in place,” a Yeochun NCC official said.
The second best company in this regard was Korea Telecom with 18.9 years of employment on average. POSCO came third with 18.6 years, followed by Korea Electric Power Corp with 18.5 years, and Hyundai Heavy Industries with 18.2 years.
