S. Korean workers earn 32.8 mln won on annual average: poll

SEOUL, July 20 (Yonhap) -- The average salary of South Korean workers stood at 32.8 million won (US$28,000) in 2015, up 1.5 percent from a year earlier, a survey showed Wednesday.

The median income, however, was 25 million won, far below the average salary level, according to the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI).

The number of those who earned 100 million won or more came to 390,000, or 2.7 percent of the total.

The country's major business lobby group analyzed income data from the labor ministry for 14.6 million workers nationwide.

Regular employees at large companies got paid 65.4 million won, a 4.2 percent increase from 2014.

The average salary of regular workers at small and medium-sized companies rose only 1.2 percent to 33.6 million won, widening their income gap.

"Despite negative factors both internally and externally including an economic slump stemming from China and sluggish domestic spending, the yearly salary of South Korean workers has largely increased, compared with the previous year," Song Won-keun, head of the FKI's economy bureau, said.

In particular, wages of employees at conglomerates were hiked more than those at small and medium-sized firms, he pointed out.

lcd@yna.co.kr
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