Major Conglomerate Owners Average 2.7 Billion Won in Compensation... Chairman Kim Seung-youn Tops with 24.8 Billion Won

The average compensation per person-including bonuses-received by owner families of major conglomerates last year approached 2.7 billion won. Kim Seung-youn, Chairman of Hanwha Group, became the 'salary king' among major conglomerate owners, receiving over 24.8 billion won in compensation last year.

On April 15, CEO Score, a corporate data research institute, announced the results of its survey on compensation paid to owner families (over 500 million won) and the average salary per employee, based on business reports disclosed by 460 affiliates from 81 conglomerate groups with an identified head as of last year. The results showed that the average compensation per owner family member of major conglomerates last year was 2,719,350,000 won, an increase of about 7% from the previous year (2,544,130,000 won). This amount is 27 times higher than the average annual compensation per employee, which stood at 101,200,000 won, excluding non-registered executives.

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There were 10 owner family members whose total compensation exceeded 10 billion won. Among them, the individual who received the highest compensation was Kim Seung-youn, Chairman of Hanwha Group. Last year, Chairman Kim received a total of 24,841,000,000 won from five Hanwha Group affiliates. He was followed by: Lotte's Shin Dong-bin (19,134,000,000 won), Doosan's Park Jeong-won (18,130,000,000 won), CJ's Lee Jae-hyun (17,743,000,000 won), Hyundai Motor's Chung Eui-sun (17,461,000,000 won), Hyosung's Cho Hyun-joon (15,735,000,000 won), Hanjin's Cho Won-tae (14,578,000,000 won), Youngone's Sung Rae-eun (12,163,000,000 won), Doosan's Park Ji-won (11,985,000,000 won), and HL's Chung Mong-won (10,484,000,000 won).

In particular, it was found that at three companies-Doosan, Hyosung, and Emart-the compensation gap between the owner family and regular employees exceeded 100 times. Park Jeong-won, Chairman of Doosan Group, received total compensation of 18,130,000,000 won from Doosan last year, which is nearly 158.4 times the average employee compensation at Doosan (114,450,000 won). Cho Hyun-joon, Chairman of Hyosung Group, received 10,199,000,000 won from Hyosung, which is 115.5 times the average per-employee compensation at Hyosung (88,290,000 won) during the same period. Chung Yong-jin, Chairman of Shinsegae Group, also received 5,850,000,000 won from Emart, which amounts to 114.4 times the average employee compensation (51,140,000 won) at Emart.

On the other hand, the company with the smallest compensation gap between the owner family and employees was Hitejinro Holdings. Park Tae-young, the eldest son of Park Moon-duk, Chairman of Hitejinro, received 600 million won last year, which was just 5.0 times the average employee compensation (121,000,000 won).

This survey also highlighted that 34 companies reduced owner compensation while increasing employee compensation. Notably, both father and son of the Celltrion family were included in this group. Seo Jin-seok, CEO of Celltrion and the eldest son of Chairman Seo Jung-jin, saw his compensation decrease by 45.6%, from 2,070,000,000 won in 2024 to 1,126,000,000 won in 2025. Chairman Seo Jung-jin's compensation also dropped significantly during the same period, from 4,377,000,000 won to 2,491,000,000 won, a decline of 43.1%.

During the same period, the average compensation for Celltrion employees increased by 9.8%, from 88,550,000 won to 97,220,000 won.

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