The Era of 100 Million Won Annual Salary Opens in Pangyo... Naver, Kakao, and NC Join In

NCSoft headquarters located in Pangyo Techno Valley, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do.

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] The era of 100 million won annual salaries in Pangyo has begun. This is a result of the industrial structure changing and the IT industry experiencing explosive growth after COVID-19.

According to Kakao's business report on the 19th, the average salary per employee at Kakao last year was 108 million won. This is a 35% increase from the average of 80 million won the previous year. Kakao explained, "The exercise of stock options had a significant impact last year."

Naver's annual salary also surpassed 100 million won last year. Naver's average annual salary was 102.47 million won. The average annual salary per person is calculated by dividing the total annual compensation, including salary, incentives, and various allowances, by the average monthly number of employees. In Naver's case, the number of mid-year hires last year was 700, twice as many as in 2019, so the actual total compensation amount and growth rate are estimated to be higher.

NCSoft also recorded an average employee salary of 105.49 million won last year. In particular, NCSoft dramatically raised the salaries of all employees this year, so the average salary is expected to increase further next year. On the 11th, NCSoft announced a salary increase plan of 13 million won + α for development positions and 10 million won + α for non-development positions.

The salary increases in the IT industry reflect the changing industrial landscape. Until now, an average annual salary of 100 million won was mainly held by financial sector workers, but the IT industry has now proudly joined as a new mainstream.

As of 2019, among the top 500 companies in Korea, 33 companies recorded an average salary of 100 million won. Financial companies such as KB Financial Group, Hana Financial Group, NH Investment & Securities, Korean Reinsurance, Orange Life Insurance, and KB Securities were ranked within the top 10, and a total of 16 financial companies were listed within the top 30.

IT companies have benefited from non-face-to-face businesses after COVID-19, breaking records with their best-ever performances. Naver recorded an operating profit of 1 trillion won for the first time in three years, Kakao surpassed 4 trillion won in sales last year, achieving its highest-ever performance, and NCSoft also exceeded 2 trillion won in sales for the first time in history last year. IT companies tend to be more generous in performance and compensation because they rely more heavily on personnel such as developers compared to traditional large corporations.

However, there are also voices of dissatisfaction compared to the salaries of executives. Naver increased executive salaries by more than 50% last year, but the performance bonuses paid to employees at the beginning of this year based on last year's results were frozen at the previous year's level, causing internal conflicts. Kakao also faced employee complaints about insufficient performance bonuses and other compensation.

Job turnover is also frequent in the IT industry. The average length of service for employees is less than six years at Naver (5.77 years), Kakao (5.3 years), and NCSoft (5.6 years). This is much shorter than Samsung Electronics (12.4 years), Hyundai Motor Company (18.8 years), or KB Financial Group (15.1 years).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.