Nekaos internal wage gap
Regular employees earn less than average wages
Non-developers are rare
Up to 100 million won with the developer
◆ IT industry labor tsunami ◆
Pangyo is filled with job advertisements Job advertisements are brightly lit up in Pangyo subway station, Gyeonggi-do, where IT companies are located, called the Silicon Valley of Korea. As competition to secure talents is heating up, such as recruiting people with development experience among companies, basic pay and bonuses are increasing one after another. [Reporter Lee Chung-woo] The wage gap between Naver and Kakao appears to be widening. The average salary of executives and general employees was nearly 300 million won in Naver and 100 million won in Kakao between men and women. The wage gap between men and women is usually evaluated as a measure of the difference in salaries between developers and non-developers.
According to a recently published business report, 119 unregistered executives from Naver received an average salary of 406 million won last year. Non-registered executives include the CEO of Navers in-house independent company and the middle manager level responsible leader. The average salary of Naver employees is 129.15 million won, which reflects the salary of unregistered executives. Because of this, regular employees are likely to receive lower salaries.
Kakao introduced unregistered executives for the first time last year as the company grew rapidly. Eleven C-level executives of the company are unregistered executives, and the average salary last year was 249 million won. The average salary of all Kakao employees was 172 million won, and the gap between executives and employees was smaller than that of Naver. Analysts say that this is the result of employees actively exercising stock options on the rise of the stock price last year.
The wage gap between developers and non-developers is also widening. The reality is that the information technology industry still has significantly more male developers. Unlike other industries, if you look at the wage gap between men and women, you can guess the wage gap between developers and non-developers to some extent. Last year, Navers male employees earned an average of 135.88 million won, 18.47 million won more than the average female employees. At Kakao, the average salary gap between male and female employees widened by up to 100 million won.
An IT industry official said that the company is also raising the salary of non-developers at the same time, but the wage gap is inevitably widening as the battle for experienced developers continues.
In fact, in Naver and Kakao, complaints about low salaries and opaque performance pay are growing, centered on young employees, compared to the increased work intensity after the COVID-19 crisis. The companys stock options are also losing their attractiveness as compensation as their share price growth has slowed since the second half of last year. Inside and outside the company, unless you are a developer, you can count colleagues with an annual salary of 100 million won or more, but the executives are frustrated with their salaries in the hundreds of millions of won, and complaints such as that they will change to a competitor who pay more salaries are coming out.
In this situation, Naver and Kakao appear to be working hard to strengthen the treatment of their employees. CEO Choi Su-yeon, who became Navers new chief executive, said at a recent in-house meeting that it is preparing a new compensation policy that is the best in the industry so that it can share its achievements with employees. He also emphasized that he will take responsibility for unregistered executives, including responsible leaders, and evaluate business performance meticulously. Naver plans to announce a new compensation system, including a salary increase, in the near future after negotiating with the labor union.
In Kakao, the head office announced a plan to raise by more than 5 million won and Kakao Bank by 10 million won, and they are strengthening compensation every day. In the meantime, the company has focused on future growth and has adhered to the payment of bonuses and stock options.
