SK execs donate their own cash for jobs fund

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is donating 6 billion won ($5.3 million) of his personal assets to a public fund helping young people find jobs, the conglomerate said Sunday.

CEOs and executives at affiliates under the SK umbrella are also coughing up an accumulated 4 billion won, propelling total donations from SK to the so-called Youth Hope Fund to 10 trillion won.

“Chairman Chey as well as executives at SK affiliates has agreed to contribute to the fund as they sympathize with the good cause of the fund, in which the entire society tries to propel job creation for the country’s young people,” said SK in a statement.

SK’s contributions to the fund came 10 days after Samsung executives and its bedridden chairman donated 25 billion won to the Park Geun-hye administration-led youth job fund. Samsung’s move made it likely that other conglomerates would follow given the Korean corporate culture of collective action on projects spearheaded by the government.

At a recent seminar for SK CEOs in Jeju, Chey said, “Seek measures to resolve the jobless problem among the younger generation and the polarization plaguing Korean society for the sake of SK’s own survival and growth.”

In line with the donations, SK has raised the number of entry-level workers it will recruit within the remaining two months of this year by 15 percent from a year earlier to 1,500.

In August, the group announced it would offer jobs to men doing military service who delayed their discharges amid the recent cross-border inter-Korean tension.

The recruiting process kicked off in September and those recruits are set to be formally hired this month.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun@joongang.co.kr]