Labour costs rising in Korean yards

Employees at Korea’s top three shipbuilding companies receive an annual salary of almost 70 million won according to recent data. Annual salary for workers at Samsung Heavy Industries, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering went up by an average of 20% from last year, set to exceed 70 million won this year.

The average annual salary for Hyundai Heavy workers was 66.62 million won, an increase of 14.2% from last year?s 57.26 million won. Samsung employees? average annual wage was 65.3 million won, up 18.3% from 2006, while that of Daewoo employees stood at 66.1 million won, an increase of 20.4% last year’s 54.9 million won.

Korean employees receive more than 20 times the wages of their Chinese counterparts and are among the best paid workers in Korea’s industrial sector. All three of the big yards posted record profits last year.