Far cry from Samsung: Public sector researchers in Korea make ₩60 mil. a year

Samsung Electronics is still feeling the aftershocks of its labor dispute, with tensions resurfacing as union members vote on a tentative wage agreement. Semiconductor researchers have bristled at performance bonuses worth hundreds of millions of won, arguing that the payouts were still smaller than those received by employees in other divisions. Meanwhile, new government data shows that full-time science and engineering Ph.D.s newly hired by Korea’s public research institutes earned an average starting salary of just 48 million won (around $39,000). The finding has raised concerns of a drastic — and increasingly entrenched — pay gap among science and engineering professionals. Monday's tentative agreement between Samsung Electronics and its labor unions showed that an employee at the company’s semiconductor research lab with an annual salary of 100 million won would receive a total of 600 million won before taxes this year. The amount includes 50 million won under the existing overall performance incentive system, and an additional 440 million won in special bonuses secured th

Go to News Site