The average growth rate of Korean wages last year rose by 4.7 percent on-year, a slower rise than in the previous year, the government said on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, a total of 6,814 businesses that hired more than 100 employees and completed wage bargaining last year gave a 4.7 percent pay raise on average, slightly lower than 5.1 percent in 2011.

Big firms that pay more than 1,000 workers, in particular, increased wages by only 4.6 percent, lower than small and medium-sized businesses, the ministry said in its report. The average wage hike was lower at conglomerates, which reduced payments for incentives and performance-based bonuses last year, it added.

The surveyed wages include not only basic salaries but also incentives and bonuses.

“Large companies’ capabilities to pay bonuses and incentives seem to have weakened due to the economic recession last year,” an official said.

Since 2000, wages have increased 4-6 percent on average as the country’s economy recovered from the 1997-98 financial crisis. However, the wage hike rate turned south again in 2009 right after the global economic recession that started off in the United States in 2008. Wages increased only 1.7 percent on average in 2009 but entered an upward trend again in 2010 with 4.8 percent and 5.1 percent in 2011.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)