[Anchor]

Joining us this Tuesday is reporter Han Jiyeon for 'Friendly Economy.' Reporter Han, I hear the number of office workers earning a monthly salary of over 5 million won has increased significantly?

[Reporter]

As of October last year, the number of workers with a monthly salary of 5 million won or more exceeded 3.7 million.

This is an all-time high.

The figure of 3,713,000 might be hard to grasp,

but it accounts for 16.5% of all wage earners.

In other words, while a monthly salary of 5 million won was previously considered a fairly high income, now, about one in six people around us earns 5 million won or more.

Of course, "wage" here refers to pre-tax income, including bonuses.

Looking at how much this has increased compared to a year earlier,

the number of people grew by nearly 300,000,

and the proportion also rose by 1.1 percentage points.

[Anchor]

But I understand these high-earning workers are heavily concentrated in specific industries?

[Reporter]

When looking at the proportion of those earning 5 million won or more, the gap between the highest and lowest industries was a whopping 27-fold.

Even when comparing major industries with large numbers of employed people, the difference was stark.

These are manufacturing and the health and social welfare services sectors.

While both industries are considered the two main pillars of the job market, their wage levels showed a significant disparity.

First, in manufacturing, the proportion of workers earning 5 million won or more was 24%, or about one in four workers.

The proportion of workers earning 3 million won or more also reached 68%.

On the other hand, in health and social welfare services, the share of those earning 5 million won or more was only around 5%.

Instead, more than 75% of the workers earned less than 3 million won.

With the aging population driving up demand for care, jobs in the health and welfare sectors are growing rapidly.

Just last month, the number of employed people in this sector increased by more than 210,000, showing that hiring continues, but wage levels have yet to catch up.

Broadening the scope to all industries, the financial and insurance sector was the highest.

In the financial sector, performance bonuses and incentives make up a large share, and the stock market was also performing well at the time.

At 38%, nearly four out of ten workers received 5 million won or more.

The information and communications sector, as well as professional, scientific, and technical services—which include accountants, lawyers, and architects—also exceeded 35%.

Conversely, the accommodation and food services sector had the lowest proportion among all industries, with only 1.4%—about one in 100 workers—earning 5 million won or more.

However, this data actually precedes the full impact of the semiconductor boom.

This year, the situation is different.

With talk of major corporations handing out bonuses worth hundreds of millions of won, once the semiconductor boom and these bonuses are fully reflected, wage levels in the manufacturing sector are likely to rise even higher than they are now.

As a result, there are concerns that the wage gap between industries could widen even further.

On the other hand, there are also worries that this steep wage growth, centered on large manufacturing firms, could drive up product and service prices, potentially fueling inflation once again.

[Anchor]

On a completely different note, what is the issue with flights to Jeju Island?

[Reporter]

Despite the reallocation of slots on the Jeju-Gimpo route, criticisms are rising that some airlines have failed to utilize them properly, worsening the shortage of available seats.

A slot refers to the designated time allocated for an aircraft to take off or land at an airport.

Following the merger between Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, 13 slots on the Jeju-Gimpo route previously held by them were redistributed to Eastar Jet, Jeju Air, and T'way Air, among others.

However, Eastar Jet utilized less than half of the additional flights it was permitted to operate, while T'way Air actually reduced its flights despite being allowed to operate more.

In particular, the reduction by T'way Air alone accounts for a loss of more than 20,000 seats.

From the airlines' perspective, this decision was made because fuel prices are high and they projected that passenger load factors would not meet expectations.

The problem is the resulting impact.

In fact, as of last April, the number of seats on the round-trip Jeju-Gimpo route decreased by more than 180,000 compared to last January.

This is why there are concerns that securing tickets to Jeju could become even more difficult ahead of the vacation season.

Consequently, there are growing calls to penalize airlines that do not properly utilize their allocated slots during future distributions of slots or traffic rights.