Men get more money and work longer

Men working at major Korean companies were paid 43 percent more on average than their female counterparts, and they worked for one company an average of 4.3 years longer, data compiled by a job portal showed.

Male employees earned an average annual salary of 80.7 million won ($71,861), while female employees were paid 49.3 million won, according to a study by JobKorea.

The site analyzed the regulatory filings of 90 of Korea’s top 100 companies by sales.

The overall average salary was 75.6 million won per year.

Korean Reinsurance had the highest average salary for both genders, with male employees taking home 115 million won per year and women earning 79 million won.

Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance was the second-most generous employer for men, with an average salary of 112.1 million won, and Samsung Electronics followed with 112 million won.

Other firms that gave an average salary higher than 100 million won to men included Hanwha Life Insurance (108 million won), SK Telecom (106 million won), Korea Exchange Bank (105 million won), Samsung Life Insurance (105 million won), Kookmin Bank (104 million won), Citibank Korea (103 million won) and Shinhan Bank (103 million won).

For female employees, SK Telecom and Kia Motors were tied as the second-highest paying employer with average salaries of 75 million won, followed by Samsung Electronics at 74 million won.

Male employees also worked for one company for a longer period than female employees, averaging 12.6 years, compared with female workers’ 7.9 years.

Male employees at Kookmin Bank stayed the longest among the 90 companies studied, 21.9 years on average, followed by SK Energy at 21.1 years. Korea Exchange Bank and Korea Electric Power Corporation were tied at 19.6 years.

For female employees, KT offered the longest tenure at 17 years, followed by Hanwha Life Insurance at 16.6 years and Kia Motors at 15.6 years.

The 90 companies studied also employed mostly men. Of the 887,636 employees included in the study, including contract workers, 75.1 percent were male.

Hyundai Wia, an auto parts maker, had the highest concentration of male employees, with 98.1 percent of its workforce. Yeochun NCC followed with 97.7 percent, and Dongkuk Steel came in third with 97.2 percent.

Lotte Shopping, Korea’s No.1 retailer, had the biggest female employee ratio of 68.1 percent, followed by 63.4 percent at E-Mart, the discount retail chain operated by Shinsegae. Hana Bank came in third, at 61.8 percent.

BY PARK JUNG-YOUN [park.jungyoun@joongang.co.kr]