By Park Hyong-ki
Staff Reporter

The salary gap between men and women working in the financial industry is still wide, further posing a problem related to remuneration for female employees.

According to financial statements submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service in 2007 by local banks, securities and insurance companies, women received an annual salary of 40 million won on average, less than 50 percent of that of men.

This is far below the national average of what female workers receive compared with male employees. The National Statistical Office noted that women’s average yearly salary for all industries is about 61 percent that of men’s.

Among financial companies, brokerage houses such as Samsung Securities and Daewoo Securities showed the widest gap in salaries between the two.

Women working at the top 23 securities firms earned an average of 42 million won a year, about 42 percent of that of men.

Of brokerages, Kiwoom Securities showed the largest gap, as women’s salaries were only about 21 percent of their male counterparts, followed by Shinheung Securities (HMC Investment Securities), Meritz Securities and Mirae Asset Securities.

Hanyang Securities paid the highest salary to its female employees last year, offering 74 million won on average, followed by Hyundai Securities.

Banks paid women 42 million won, but this accounts for only 56 percent of that of men’s, while insurers paid 35 million on average to their women employees, about 58 percent of the men’s salary.

Human resources experts note that the reason why women working in the financial industry receive less than men is that most of them are either part-time employees or have less experience than men.

Meanwhile, of 17 financial firms, 14 securities companies, including Meritz, Shinyoung, Samsung and Kiwoom, paid an average of over 100 million won to male employees on lat year’s bullish stock market run.

Meritz paid 135 million won to its male employees, according to the FSS.

Also, executives of banks received the biggest paycheck, averaging 638 million won a year, followed by insurance and securities companies.

Executives at Shinhan Bank, Korea Exchange Bank and Daegu Bank received above 600 million won.

Among the companies, LIG Insurance paid its executives about 2 billion won, the highest last year.

phk@koreatimes.co.kr