Controlling families of South Korea’s largest business groups earned an average of about $2.0 million in compensation last year, highlighting persistent pay disparities with rank-and-file employees that in some cases exceeded 100 times.
A review by corporate data tracker CEO Score of 460 affiliates across 81 conglomerates found that owner-family members receiving more than $370000 annually posted average compensation of roughly $2.0 million in 2025, up 6.9% from a year earlier.
Over the same period, average employee pay rose 11.1% to about $74000. The overall pay gap between owners and workers narrowed slightly to 26.9 times, from 27.9 times the previous year.
Disparities remained pronounced at several groups. Three conglomerates — Doosan, Hyosung and Shinsegae — reported pay gaps exceeding 100 times.
Park Jeong-won, chairman of Doosan Group, received about $13.4 million, or roughly 158 times the average employee salary of $84000.
Cho Hyun-joon of Hyosung Group earned approximately $7.5 million, about 115 times the firm’s average worker pay of $65000.
Chung Yong-jin, chairman of Shinsegae Group, took home about $4.3 million from E-Mart alone, more than 114 times the retailer’s average employee salary of $38000.
Other companies with large pay gaps included Youngone Corp., CJ CheilJedang, LS Electric, Lotte Shopping and Hyundai Motor, where owner compensation ranged from roughly 70 to nearly 90 times that of employees.
At the narrower end, Hite Jinro Holdings posted the smallest gap. Chairman Park Moon-duk earned about $700000, or 7.9 times the average employee salary.
In some cases, owner pay rose even as employee compensation declined. At Samyang Holdings, President Kim Geon-ho’s pay increased 64.9% to about $690000, while average employee pay fell 5.3% to roughly $52000.
Conversely, 34 companies reduced owner compensation while raising employee wages.
Ten owner-family members earned more than $7.4 million last year. The highest-paid was Kim Seung-youn of Hanwha Group, who collected about $18.4 million across five affiliates.
He was followed by Shin Dong-bin of Lotte Group with roughly $14.2 million, Park Jeong-won of Doosan with $13.4 million, Lee Jae-hyun of CJ Group with $13.1 million, and Chung Eui-sun of Hyundai Motor Group with about $12.9 million.
The findings underscore persistent income inequality within South Korea’s family-controlled conglomerates, even as overall wage growth has accelerated.
