At KRW120mn
The Korea Federation of Banks announced on March 8 that the average annual salary of Citibank Korea staff members was 120 million won last year, the highest in the domestic banking sector.
Citibank Korea has been at the top of the list all the way since 2014. The members reached an annual salary of 100 million won and a monthly wage of 10 million won for the first time in the sector.
Their high salary is because of an automatic pay increase proportional to the duration of employment and a militant labor union rather than an excellent business performance. Citibank took over Hanmi Bank in 2004, and yet the absorbed employees’ wages still rise automatically.
The bank’s new employment has been zero since 2011, but the number of its employees has not decreased from 3,500 since 2014 because of the militant union. As a result of the automatic pay increase, the average salary has continued to rise for the past 10 years regardless of productivity. In 2017, the average annual salary broke the 100 million won mark while the bank’s net profit dropped 35 percent.