100 Million Era
Hyundai Motor Company wrapped up its wage negotiations for this year with its labor union to become the first Korean manufacturer paying an average of 100 million won a year to its employees.
According to the automakers, both parties tentatively agreed on Sept. 29 to raising the base pay by 98,000 (US$92.12) won and paying bonuses and incentives of 450 percent plus 8.7 million won (US$8,178) along with traditional market vouchers worth 200,000 won (US$188). The total average annual salary, in this case, increases by 27,188,035 won (US$25,559) per employee.
At present, the average service length of the company’s manufacturing workers is 17 years. Those who have worked for 17 years in the company received approximately 94 million won (US$88,395) in 2013. The annual salary increases to over 100 million won when the raised base pay and overtime pay are counted in the calculation.
In addition, the issue of ordinary wage expansion has yet to be handled. The management and the union are planning to simplify the employee benefit system by the end of March next year. The annual payment can be further raised once the wage structure is changed.
The temporary subcontractor workers’ wages increased a lot through negotiations, too. Hyundai adjusted the contract prices with its subcontractors after yearly wage negotiations. This year, a rate of increase higher than that of permanent workers has been adopted.
The temps’ average salary is approximately 87 percent of that currently paid to permanent workers. The former have worked for Hyundai for 5.1 years and received 57.91 million won (US$54,398) on average in 2013. This amount is even higher than that paid during the same year to the regular employees of most of the 30 largest business groups in Korea such as GS (58.01 million won, US$54,534), Hanwha (55.1 million won, US$51,814), and Lotte (38.01 million won, US$35,705).