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“It raises 20 million won per year, so I would like to change job.”
President A, who runs a plant equipment company in the metropolitan area, sent two engineers from 5 to 6 years old from the company last year. This is because both employees resigned after being offered career positions at a large company in the same industry. The company invested hundreds of millions of dollars in improving the skills of the two employees. He confessed, “I had a fever, but an employee who decided to change job came and asked me to let go of it, so I had no choice but to accept the situation.”
There are concerns that the number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) rushing to the edge of the cliff may increase as the labor shortage in the mid-sized industry worsens due to the wage gap between large and small and medium-sized enterprises. A representative of an engineering company in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province said, “The more severe the black hole phenomenon of large corporations, the more the burden on SMEs is bound to increase.” “He said. Another engineering company representative pointed out, “Managing employees over 15-20 years with a higher ransom has become the biggest issue in the company’s management.” The president of a manufacturer at Banwol Industrial Complex complained, “We are in a situation where we cannot openly express dissatisfaction for fear of being disliked by Woncheng’s conglomerates.”
In fact, according to the ‘2019 Wage Job Income Results’ released by the National Statistical Office last month, the average monthly pre-tax income of workers in large corporations is 5.15 million won. The pre-tax income of SME workers was 2.45 million won, showing a difference of 2.7 million won in monthly average income between large and SMEs. The average monthly income of large and SMEs increased by 2.9% and 6.1%, respectively, compared to the previous year, but as in the previous year, the average monthly income of SME workers was less than half of that of large companies.
The wage gap between large and SMEs appears because the difference in profits earned by companies is that large. It was found that 56.8% (125 trillion won) of operating profit earned by all companies in 2019 was taken by large corporations, which accounted for 0.3% of the number of companies. On the other hand, the operating profit of SMEs, which is 99.1% of all companies, was 56 trillion won, which was only 25.5% of the total operating profit.
“The widening wage gap between small and medium-sized enterprises and large enterprises can create social discomfort and may lead to class conflicts.” A plan for win-win between SMEs must be sought.”
Reporter Min Kyung-jin [email protected]
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