As the salary level of large companies has generally increased in the past year, the average annual salary of employees has exceeded 100 million won.

Companies with average annual salaries exceeding the 200 million won threshold have also appeared.

According to last year's business reports published by companies, the average annual salary of 84 SK Square employees, including non-registered executives, excluding registered executives, was 214 million won.

Excluding the 12 unregistered executives whose average salary per person exceeded 600 million won, the average annual salary of employees calculated reached 157.02 million won.

SK Square is an investment company launched in November 2021 by spinning off SK Telecom.

In addition, last year, the average annual salary of LG Corporation, the holding company of LG Group, and DL Corporation, the holding company of DL Group, was 201 million won each.

Compared to a year ago, LG Corp. jumped 48.9% from KRW 135 million, and DL Corp. jumped 6.9% from KRW 188 million.

LG Corporation and DL Co., Ltd. have 197 and 41 employees, respectively, which is very small like SK Square, so it seems that the average salary is high.

The oil refining industry, whose salaries are higher than other industries, came out on top.

Last year, the average annual salary was KRW 171.07 million for S-OIL, KRW 157 million for SK Energy, KRW 153.97 million for GS Caltex, and KRW 153 million for SK Innovation, the parent company of SK Energy.

In the case of S-Oil, the salary level increased by 49% from the average KRW 114.78 million in 2021, while GS Caltex and SK Energy also increased by 19.8% and 45.9%, respectively.

Last year's remuneration reflected the previous year's performance.

Compared to 2020, when performance was sluggish due to the COVID-19 pandemic, performance in 2021 improved significantly, which is analyzed as the impact of increased performance pay.

In addition, ILJIN Display (KRW 172 million), LX Holdings (KRW 172 million), HD Hyundai (KRW 154.07 million), and Hite Jinro Holdings (KRW 151 million) earned an average annual salary of more than KRW 150 million.

Samsung Electronics reported KRW 135 million last year, down slightly from KRW 144 million last year.

Other Samsung affiliates include Samsung SDS KRW 131 million, Cheil Corporation KRW 127 million, Samsung C&T KRW 125 million, Samsung Engineering KRW 120 million, and Samsung SDI KRW 116 million.

SK hynix's average annual salary last year was 133.85 million won, similar to that of Samsung Electronics, up 16.2% from 115.2 million won last year.

Other SK affiliates include SK Geocentric KRW 149 million, SK Enmove KRW 136 million, SKC KRW 128 million, SK Discovery KRW 123 million, and SK Corporation KRW 118 million.

Last year, for the first time, LG Electronics' average employee salary exceeded 100 million won.

Among LG subsidiaries, LG Chem (KRW 120 million) and LG Uplus (KRW 110 million) exceeded KRW 100 million, and LG Energy Solution reached KRW 99 million, approaching KRW 100 million.

Hyundai Motor Group subsidiaries such as Hyundai Motor (KRW 105 million), Kia (KRW 112 million), Hyundai Mobis (KRW 108 million), Hyundai Steel (KRW 107 million), and Hyundai WIA (KRW 102 million) also exceeded KRW 100 million.

The number of large companies joining the "100 million won annual salary club" is increasing year by year.

According to a survey conducted by the Korea Economic Research Institute, affiliated to the National Federation of Businessmen, among the top 100 listed companies in the non-financial industry by revenue, 85 companies with business reports have increased to 8 in 2019, 10 in 2020, and 21 in 2021.

However, the total amount of salary in the business report may include high remuneration received by unregistered executives and profits from exercising stock options.

Therefore, there is an opinion that the calculation of the average salary based on this may fall into the so-called "average trap", and that it is different from the actual remuneration received by the majority of employees.

(Photo = Yonhap News)