The total monthly wages of regular workers during the first half of the year was 6.1% ↑ compared to the previous year… Big difference in special grade

Although the average monthly salary of regular workers increased during the first half of this year, there was a large gap by industry and size.

On the 25th, the Korean Federation of Employers published ‘Analysis of Wage Growth by Size and Industry in the First Half of 2022’. According to the survey, the average monthly salary in the first half of this year increased by 6.1% compared to the same period the previous year, but there was a large difference in the rate of increase by industry and size due to the difference in the rate of increase in special pay including bonuses and performance pay.

During the first half of this year, the average monthly salary (excluding overtime pay) was 3848,000 won, up 6.1% from the same period last year. This is 1.9 percentage points (p) higher than last year’s rate of increase.

By wage component, the flat rate wage rise rate was 4.1%, up 1.0% per annum from the first half of last year. The rate of increase in special pay was 19.1%, which was significantly higher than the 11.8% in the first half of last year. It increased by 33.2% in two years. In terms of the wage increase rate by size, the average monthly increase rate for businesses with 300 or more employees increased by 9.8% compared to the first half of last year, while those with fewer than 300 employees recorded 4.8%, which is about half. .

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The Federation of Korean Industries analyzed that the main reason for this difference was the large difference in the special wage increase rate by size. There was no significant difference in the rate of increase according to the size of the flat rate benefit.

There were also large differences in the average monthly wage increase by industry. The industry with the largest increase was manufacturing (8.5%) and the lowest was water/sewerage/waste/recycling (1.6%).

Compared to the first half of last year, the rate of flat rate wage increase was 1.4% to 6.5% by industry, and the rate of special wage increase was -8.1% to 31.7%. The main factor in the gap in the rate of increase by industry was also more pronounced in the special pay (39.8%c) than in the uniform rate (5.1%p), similar to the characteristics by size.

Ha Sang-woo, head of the Economic Research Division, said, “During the first half of this year, we were able to confirm that the gap in special pay, including performance pay, is very large in terms of size and industry. However, it is necessary to adjust and control it at a reasonable level, as high price performance pay that is concentrated in certain industries and companies can deepen social differences while giving employees of companies that do not have a sense of of relative deprivation.”

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