"They say last year's average pay rose by more than 7% from 2024, but general staff don't really feel it. In reality, it seems to have gone up about 3% from the previous year."
Recently, similar complaints have been coming from general staff inside KT. Last year, the company's overall average pay jumped 7.27% from 2024. However, employees who say they can't feel it are voicing such complaints. The announced growth rate of the average pay is being interpreted not as the result of all employees' wages rising across the board, but as the effect of favoring information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI) talent centered on developers.
According to the industry on the 24th, KT employees' year-over-year average pay growth rate was 3.88% in 2023 and 2.8% in 2024, before rising to 7.27% last year. The year-over-year average pay growth rate, which had stayed in the 2% to 3% range for two straight years, jumped unusually high only last year. By the numbers, it looks as if all employees' compensation rose sharply, but assessments say the internal mood is somewhat different.
As a backdrop, the IT track centered on developers that was newly created under former KT chief executive Kim Young-shub in Apr. last year is being mentioned. KT removed the salary cap only for "principal," the highest rank in this track. The general track has a five-step rank system, but the IT track has three ranks: principal, senior, and associate. While the general track has salary caps set by rank and experience, the IT track is structured to allow recruitment of high-salary talent. According to the industry, the number of people hired into KT's IT track last year is estimated at around 700.
Even assuming the general track's average pay rose 3% from the previous year, the IT track's compensation level is estimated to be high. Applying a 3% raise to KT's 2024 average pay of 110 million won yields an estimated 2025 average pay of about 113.3 million won for the general track. Out of KT's total 14,701 employees, if the IT track is seen as 700 people, then the number in the general track is 14,001.
Based on this, the total payroll for the general track comes to about 1.5863 trillion won. Multiplying KT's 2025 overall average pay of 118 million won by the total headcount of 14,701 yields an overall payroll of about 1.7347 trillion won. Subtracting the general track's total payroll from this gives an estimated IT track payroll of about 148.4 billion won. Dividing that by 700 in the IT track, the average pay per person in the IT track is about 212 million won. That is about 80% higher than KT's overall average pay (118 million won). The annual average pay gap between the general and IT tracks comes out to nearly 100 million won.
Of course, this calculation is a simple estimate based on the business report's average pay and headcount. The figures can vary depending on the actual IT track headcount and the general track's average pay raise rate. Still, even applying a raise rate of around 3% to the general track suggests the IT track's compensation level significantly exceeds the overall average, offering a clue to explain the sense of marginalization inside the company.
A person surnamed Park in the general track who has worked at KT for more than 10 years said, "The pay gap between the general and IT tracks is so large that dissatisfaction is growing inside the company," and added, "To move from the general track to the IT track, you have to go through complicated procedures such as convening a personnel committee, so in effect a track change is impossible." Another employee, a person surnamed Lee, said, "I heard that in the IT track, those at the assistant manager level can earn an executive's salary, the disparity is that big."
If the size of the IT track grows going forward, this trend is expected to strengthen. Following the creation of the developer-centered IT track, KT set up the Tech Recruiting Center in Feb. this year, a dedicated organization for hiring for AX (AI transformation) roles. The company was also said to have moved to hire AX core talent in the triple digits this year.
Inside and outside the industry, there is a view that if telecom companies' competition to secure AI talent intensifies, the companies' overall average pay will rise, but the phenomenon of general staff not feeling it could spread to SK Telecom and LG Uplus. A telecom industry official said, "It is more accurate to see KT's average pay growth rate as the result of a compensation system and workforce reshuffle that favors AI and developer talent, rather than all general staff receiving across-the-board pay raises," adding, "If the competition among telecoms to secure AI talent intensifies, a similar trend could emerge at other companies."
A KT official said, "The pay systems for the IT track and the general track were applied under the same standards."