“It is fortunate that I am still able to keep my job. When I hear that large corporations receive tens of thousands of won in bonuses, it is just envy. Last Lunar New Year, I got a tuna gift set with my little one.”
This is the words of the head of the HR department at a small and medium-sized enterprise. Major conglomerates that have performed well in overseas markets despite COVID-19 are competing to raise wages, but for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) employees, it is just another country. As the number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) workers complaining of relative deprivation increases, concerns are raised that the dual structure of the labor market could become a social problem.
According to the ‘February 2022 Workforce Survey Results’ announced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 31st of last month, the wages of regular workers (regular workers or employment contracts of more than one year) in companies with 300 or more workers in January were 9,248,000, the highest ever. circle was recorded. Usually, the wages in January are higher than in other months because special wages such as performance pay and holiday bonuses are paid, but this is the first time that it has exceeded 9 million won. An official from the Ministry of Employment and Labor explained, “The payment of holiday bonuses, changes in the timing of bonus payments, and the base effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” However, it is an increase of 2558,000 won compared to January 2020, just before the COVID-19 outbreak has a full-fledged impact on the industry.
In particular, the special salary (performance pay, etc.) paid to regular employees of companies with 300 or more in January increased by 2,474,000 won (104%) from the same month of the previous year, leading the sharp increase. It is analyzed that this is the aftermath of large companies that have been affected by the competition for performance pay from Samsung and SK Hynix led by the MZ generation (millennials + generation Z), and raised the incentive pay to prevent the outflow of talent. In addition, as the performance of platform and information technology (IT) companies such as Kakao and Naver improved, the ability to pay wages increased rapidly.
On the other hand, the wages of workers at companies with fewer than 300 employees in January increased by 15.0% from the same month of the previous year to only 3822,000 won. This is less than half of the amount for businesses with 300 or more employees. Although the Ministry of Employment and Labor has not released it, SMEs with fewer than 50 employees are naturally expected to be much lower than this.
The wage gap between large and small businesses is widening. In January of last year, the wage of companies with 300 or more employees was 6.69 million won, 2.0 times that of companies with fewer than 300 employees (3,321,000 won). However, in January, the gap widened to 2.4 times. Hee-seong Kim, a professor at Kangwon National University Law School, said, “In a situation where the movement between the primary and secondary labor markets is gradually decreasing, there is a risk that the stratification phenomenon between large enterprises and SMEs will become fixed. problem,” he pointed out.
By Kwak Yong-hee, staff reporter kyh@hankyung.com
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