Kakao Namgung Hoon "15% Salary Increase for Employees This Year"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Namgung Hoon, the appointed CEO of Kakao, has expressed his intention to increase the total annual salaries of employees by up to 15% this year.

According to Kakao on the 15th, Namgung stated in a post on the company’s internal bulletin board on the 13th that he plans to secure a budget for salary negotiations that is 15% higher than the previous year. He also mentioned that next year, he aims to secure an additional 6% compared to this year.

If the budget for salary negotiations increases by 15% this year, the average individual employee salary increase rate at Kakao is expected to reach double digits.

Namgung’s intention to significantly raise salaries is interpreted as an effort to soothe employees’ sense of loss following recent controversies over Kakao Pay executives selling shares and the decline in affiliate stock prices.

Previously, eight executives including Kakao Pay CEO Ryu Youngjun and next CEO Shin Wongeun sold 440,093 stock options through a block deal about a month after the company’s IPO, earning a profit of 87.8 billion KRW, which sparked a controversy over ‘moktwi’ (taking profits and leaving).

Due to these controversies and negative factors, Kakao’s stock price, which had surged to around 170,000 KRW in June last year, has repeatedly fallen and now remains in the 80,000 KRW range.

However, persuading shareholders may be necessary to raise employee salaries, as salary increases could raise operating costs and lead to a decline in performance. Regarding this, Namgung said, “I will try to address the burden of declining operating profits through business solutions.”

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