Nexon employees to enjoy big pay rise this year

[Photo provided by Nexon Co.]

Nexon Co., South Korea's largest game developer and publisher, has decided to offer all employees substantial wage hikes in a move to retain talent and attract those with potential in the highly competitive game industry.

The company said on Monday its starting annual salaries for new employees have been upgraded to 50 million won ($44,600) for a development position and to 45 million won for a non-development job this year.

Given that the 2020 average starting salary for fresh university graduates is 33.47 million won at a large company with more than 500 employees in Korea, Nexon’s new wage offer is at the highest level across companies in almost all industries including game sector in Korea.

Nexon was already known as a high salary paying company with 42 million won for development positions and 38 million won for non-development last year, and the latest wage increase makes it a top employer in terms of payrolls.

Salaries for existing Nexon employees will also rise significantly. The company said it has decided to raise 2021 salaries for its existing employees by 8 million won across the board. The increase rate nearly doubled to 13 percent from 7 percent a year ago. A higher increase rate will be applied to younger developers to stem talent drain.

The company said incentives for employees will be paid separately at a higher level than last year to encourage those who contributed to the company's growth despite a difficult situation last year.

Nexon’s high salary increase is driven by the company’s fast growth. The company’s number of employees grew from 500 in 2003 to 5,000 now. Sales also grew fast with 100 billion won in 2004 and 1 trillion won in 2011 and 2 trillion won in 2017. Sales for 2020 are estimated to have exceeded 3 trillion won.

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