Nexon offers all its employees a big pay rise

Game company Nexon introduced a dramatic wage hike for staff this year in a move to secure the best talent in the country.

Young developers joining the company straight out of college will now start their career at an annual wage of 50 million won ($44,700), which is nearly a 20-percent increase from last year. New employees other than developers will start from 45 million won.

This will put Nexon among the highest paying companies in Korea.

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s study on local companies with more than 500 employees, an average college graduate that started working last year saw an annual wage start at 33.5 million won.

As for existing employees, Nexon decided to offer a pay rise of 8 million won for everybody. That brings the annual wage increase rate for Nexon staff to an average 13 percent on year, double the increase rate for 2020.

“From last year, we’ve been brainstorming to find what Nexon needs in order to realize our next big step into a globally leading firm,” said Lee Jung-hun, Nexon’s CEO. “Our conclusion was to enforce human resources management by reforming the wage system, rather than giving out one-time rewards.”

The game company will also increase incentives for high-performance employees. Korean firms generally offer the same incentives to all employees. Lee, however, wrote in a letter sent to Nexon staff that he will make sure individuals “that greatly contribute to the business will walk away with incentives higher than the CEO.”

As a local industry leader, Nexon’s move to compensate staff on such a level is a notable one in the game business, once notorious for its stressful work conditions. The extreme competition and pressure to work overnights to match the launch schedule of new games were cited as serious issues. However, game companies in recent years have been introducing practices and welfare programs in order to pull in a skilled workforce.

“Manpower with skills and passion is now a must-have for a company to compete globally,” said Kang Min-hyuk, Nexon’s communications head.

“We want the best talent from various fields to join Nexon, create performance and take home big rewards. That’s the virtuous cycle we want to see.”

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]