Employees at South Korea’s state-owned policy banks earned an average of $84,000 in 2025, more than $30,000 above the public-sector average, highlighting a widening compensation gap among the country’s public institutions, according to a report released on June 17 by the National Assembly Budget Office.
Workers at bank-type public institutions, including the Korea Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea, received average annual compensation of $84,000 last year. That was $31,000 higher than the average pay across all public institutions.
Average compensation for regular employees at South Korea’s public institutions rose to $54,000 in 2025, up 3.0% from $52,000 a year earlier.
Compensation growth across the public sector has accelerated in recent years as the government increased labor-cost guidelines to reflect persistent inflationary pressures. The annual growth rate in average employee pay rose from 1.4% in 2022 to 2.0% in 2023, 2.6% in 2024 and 3.0% in 2025.
Pay disparities among different categories of public institutions have also widened. The gap between bank-type institutions and the overall public-sector average narrowed from $30,000 in 2021 to $29,000 in 2023 before expanding again to $30,000 in 2024 and $31,000 in 2025, marking a second consecutive year of widening differences.
Executive compensation showed an even sharper divide.
The average pay for heads of public institutions increased 4.5% to $145,000 in 2025 from $139,000 a year earlier. Executive pay growth had been relatively subdued in previous years, rising 1.3% in 2022 and 0.7% in 2023 before accelerating to 2.7% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2025.
Among all institution types, leaders of bank-type public financial institutions remained the highest paid, earning an average of $282,000. Although that figure declined 4.5% from $295,000 in 2024, it remained nearly double the average compensation received by public-institution chiefs overall.
Fund-management public institutions, including the National Pension Service, ranked second with average executive compensation of $204,000, up 6.3% from a year earlier. Chiefs of market-oriented state-owned enterprises earned an average of $181,000, a 22.6% increase.
The lowest-paid category was other public institutions excluding bank-type entities, where institution heads received average compensation of $137,000. The gap between that group and the highest-paid bank-type institutions amounted to roughly $145,000.
The figures underscore a growing divide within South Korea’s public sector, where policy banks and financial institutions continue to offer substantially higher compensation than most government-affiliated organizations.
