Nearly 30 heads of public institutions in South Korea took home more payroll than the country’s president last year, with 15 entities offering more than 100 million won in annual salary to full-time employees.

According to data from management information portal Alio operated by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Monday, the annual salary of the heads at 300 public institutions and their affiliates out of the 340 entities that disclosed information was higher than those of their respective supervisory ministers.

The average annual salary of the public institution chiefs reached 185 million won last year while that of ministers and minister-level officials was 137.2 million won.

In particular, 34 heads of the public institutions earned more than the prime minister who took home 186.56 million won last year and 29 received more than the president at 240.64 million won.

The annual salary of the heads of two public institutions - Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) and Korea Investment Corp. - exceeded 400 million won last year.

The annual pay was the highest at IBK (431.03 million won), followed by National Cancer Center (382.36 million won), Korea Development Bank (370.78 million won), Export-Import Bank of Korea (370.78 million won), Institute for Basic Science (331.6 million won), Korea Ocean Business Corp. (309.31 million won), Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (307.74 million won), and Korea Housing-Finance Corp. (306.37 million won).

Last year, nearly 7 out of 10 executive leaders at the public institutions saw their salary rise from the previous year while three out of 10 saw the payroll go down.

Data showed that the average annual salary of standing auditors at public institutions stood at 162 million won, which is higher than that of ministers.

The standing auditor compensation was the highest at IBK at 310.49 million won, followed by Korea Investment Corp. at 306.24 million won, KDB at 278.88 million won, Export-Import Bank of Korea at 278.88 million won, Korea Technology Finance Corp. at 250.1 million won, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund at 242.27 million won, Korea Housing-Finance Corp. at 241.19 million won, and Korea SMEs and Startups Agency at 240.96 million won.

The average compensation of full-time employees at 362 public institutions, in the meantime, was 70.38 million won, about 4 percent higher than the average of large companies.

According to Statistics Korea, the annual average pay of employees at large companies was 67.56 million won and that of small and mid-sized companies 31.92 million won as of December in 2021.

By Park Dong-hwan and Choi Jieun

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