Hyundai Pays Workers More for Less Productivity

The average Hyundai Motor worker was only half as productive as his counterpart at Toyota last year yet he was paid more, a survey has found. According to a survey of salaries and productivity at major automakers by the Federation of Korean Industries released on Monday, Korea's largest carmaker produced 29.6 cars per worker last year, which is only 43 percent as much as the 68.9 cars per worker made at Toyota.

Hyundai Motor’s sales and operating profit per worker were also no more than 40.8 and 22.2 percent of those of Toyota. The Korean company's productivity was worse than that of six other international automakers. Compared to the assembly productivity of 21.1 to 23.2 hours per vehicle by Ford, Honda, General Motors and Toyota, Hyundai and Kia recorded 31.1 and 37.5 hours, respectively.

But Hyundai paid its workers more than Toyota, with an annual average salary per worker of W57 million (US$1=W934) compared to Toyota's W55 million. The wage increase rate of the Korean company was 5.1 percent, while Toyota's was 2 percent last year. Only Hyundai's annual salary for newcomers with college degrees (W31 million) was slightly less than that of Toyota (W33.6 million).