Korean Air chief's salary surges while workers' pay slashed amid pandemic
Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae / Courtesy of Korean Air
By Kim Hyun-bin
Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae is under fire for raising his salary 40 percent while the average wage at affiliate Korean Air was cut almost 16 percent amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Korean Air's 2020 business report, the salary of an average employee stood at 60.82 million won, down 15.6 percent from the previous year.
“Most Korean Air employees were put on rotational shifts due to the pandemic, where many employees worked one month and were put on leave the following month. When they were on their one month leave, they received only 70 percent of their base pay,” an official familiar with the matter said.
Hanjin KAL is the parent company of the country's leading carrier, Korean Air.
Korean Air was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a major drop in sales, forcing the carrier to initiate emergency management measures, while placing employees on rotational shifts every other month, resulting in the deduction and exclusion of additional pay, such as flight allowances.
Korean Air's revenue also dropped 38.4 percent to 7.4 trillion. But due to a surge in cargo demand, the operating profit increased by 238.3 billion won compared to the year before.
Although employees' salaries were slashed, Cho's salaries from Hanjin Group and Korean Air grew by 354 million won compared to the previous year.
Chairman Cho received 1.732 billion won last year from Korean Air, not including bonuses.
“We assessed the pay according to our compensation standards, which take into consideration several factors, including rank, duty, leadership, specialty and level of contribution,” Korean Air said. “The results were reviewed and approved by the compensation committee and the board of directors."
In 2019, Chairman Cho received 131 million won in salary from Korean Air, with an additional bonus worth 64.3 million won. However, that salary was from April through December of 2019, after succeeding Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho's death that year.
Cho also received 1.36 billion from Hanjin KAL last year, which was a market increase from 515 million won in 2019.
Cho's accumulated salary from both Korean Air and Hanjin KAL comes out to 3.09 billion won last year, which is up 38.9 percent year-on-year.