April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Banks and financial holding companies pay better salaries than credit card and insurance firms, but the wage gap between men and women is stark across the finance industry, an analysis of business reports indicated on April 3.

Data from 31 financial entities, covering banks, financial holding firms, life and non-life insurance companies and credit card companies, showed that KB Financial Group was the top payer with an annual salary averaging 127 million won (US$120,322) last year.

Hana Financial Group came in second with an annual average wage of 116 million won, followed by Korean Re with 113 million won.

Shinhan Card, Shinhan Financial Group, Nonghyup Financial Group, Samsung Card and KB Kookmin Card all had an average yearly salary of more than 100 million won. As of last year, eight companies exceeded the threshold, compared to four in the previous year.

Data showed that banks and financial holding companies, with an average annual salary of 110 million won, tended to pay higher than card companies, who averaged 88 million won. Life and non-life insurance companies had an average yearly pay of 82 million won.

The salary gap between men and women was wide in all sectors.

At banks and financial holding firms, men were paid 116 million won compared to 73 million for women. In the insurance industry, the difference reached 40 million won. For credit card companies, the gap was 37 million won.

Female employees did not receive more than 100 million won in average annual salary at any of the companies, the data showed.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)