Female Employees at Large Corporations Earn 58.8 Million KRW Annually... Only 67% Compared to Male Counterparts

Survey of 150 Major Domestic Corporations

Among 150 major domestic conglomerates, the proportion of female employees is around 24%, and their salaries are 67% of those of male employees, according to a survey.

Korea CXO Institute, a corporate analysis specialist, announced the results of the "Comparison Survey of the Number of Male and Female Employees and Average Salaries by Industry in Major Conglomerates" on the 7th.

According to the survey conducted in celebration of International Women's Day on the 8th, the total number of employees in these 150 companies was 844,064, of which 202,703 were women and 641,361 were men. Compared to last year, the number of male employees increased by 9,937 and female employees by 3,031.

However, the institute explained that the proportion of female employees remained stagnant at 24%. There was a significant variation in female employment rates by industry. First, the distribution and trading sector, including Lotte Shopping and Samsung C&T, had the highest female ratio at 52.9% among 10 companies. This was followed by ▲ Finance (49.2%) ▲ Food (43.6%) ▲ Textile (33.6%) ▲ Transportation (33.2%).

The steel industry (4.9%) ranked lowest again in 2021, following 2020. Although it slightly increased from 4.7% last year, it still recorded the lowest ranking. Other industries with less than 10% female employees included ▲ Automobile (5.8%) ▲ Machinery (6.1%).

Lotte Shopping was surveyed as the company with the highest proportion of female employees among all employees.
[Image source=Korea CXO Institute]

Among the 150 companies surveyed, Samsung Electronics had the highest number of female employees, with 29,288 working there. This was followed by ▲ E-Mart with 15,123 ▲ Lotte Shopping with 14,202 ▲ SK Hynix with 10,606.

There were six companies where the average annual salary of female employees exceeded 100 million KRW. ▲ SK Telecom had the highest female salary at 120 million KRW, followed by ▲ NH Investment & Securities at 119.7 million KRW. Next were ▲ Naver (117.4 million KRW) ▲ Mirae Asset Securities (115.9 million KRW) ▲ Samsung Electronics (115.3 million KRW) ▲ Samsung SDS (100 million KRW), all with average female salaries above 100 million KRW.

The average salary of the surveyed companies was 87.1 million KRW for men and 58.8 million KRW for women, meaning women's salaries were about 67.5% of men's. Compared to about 68% in 2020, the wage gap between women and men widened by approximately 0.5 percentage points.

By industry, the information and communication sector, including SK Telecom and Naver, had the highest average female salary at 89.3 million KRW, followed by finance (86.3 million KRW), electronics (69.4 million KRW), automobile (65.1 million KRW), and petrochemicals (62.1 million KRW).

Among 15 industries, there was no sector where the average salary of female employees exceeded that of male employees. The pharmaceutical industry had the smallest gap, with female employees earning 58.6 million KRW, which is 77.1% of male employees' salaries, according to the institute.

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