SK Telecom, which went through a hacking incident last year, also received the weakest report card on employee compensation metrics. Known as the pay king among carriers, SK Telecom saw its average salary growth rate last year rise only in the 1% range from 2024, the only one among the three telecom firms to do so. By contrast, LG Uplus, which avoided the hacking headwinds over the same period, posted a 7.34% salary increase rate, the biggest jump among the three. Analysts say the aftershocks of the security breach may have affected employee compensation following hits to earnings and shareholder returns.
On the 24th, a ChosunBiz analysis of last year's business reports by the three telecom firms found SK Telecom's average salary per person was 163 million won, up only 1.24% from a year earlier. SK Telecom recorded a 5.92% average salary increase rate in 2024, but the pace slowed sharply in a year. Last year, KT's average salary per person was 118 million won and LG Uplus's was 117 million won, up 7.27% and 7.34%, respectively, from 2024.
Of course, SK Telecom still dominates in absolute pay levels among the three. The industry says the hacking incident SK Telecom suffered in Apr. last year weighed on earnings and its expense structure, sharply reducing the company's room for wage hikes. In fact, SK Telecom's operating profit last year plunged 41.1% from 2024. The company also halted cash dividends to shareholders in the third and fourth quarters last year.
KT, which suffered a small-payment hacking incident in Sep. last year, showed the opposite trend. KT's year-over-year average salary increase rate was limited to 2.8% in 2024 but jumped to 7.27% last year. The result is seen as reflecting expense savings from large-scale restructuring carried out in 2024 and increased revenue in the real estate business, which drove operating profit last year to rise 205% from a year earlier. KT also faced a hacking incident last year, but it surfaced in the second half. KT's waiver of penalties related to the hack also took place in Jan. this year. In the end, the impact of the hack was not fully reflected in last year's results. Some in the industry say that had KT not experienced the hacking incident, the improvement in results would have been greater and, as a result, the average salary increase rate might have surpassed LG Uplus.
Even using the last two years as a baseline, LG Uplus's average salary increase rate was the steepest. For LG Uplus, the year-over-year average salary increase rate per person was 7.9% in 2024 and 7.3% in 2025. That amounts to a 15.8% average salary increase rate over two years. Compared with KT's average salary increase rates of 2.8% in 2024 and 7.3% in 2025, totaling 10.3% over two years, it is a higher figure. It is also higher than SK Telecom's average salary increase rates of 5.92% in 2024 and 1.24% in 2025, totaling 7.24% over two years.
The telecom industry says it has been confirmed that security incidents affect not only one-off expenses but also earnings, dividends, and wage policies in a chain reaction. Whether or not a company avoided the negative of a hack made a difference in employees' perceived compensation levels. Ahn Jeong-sang, an adjunct professor at Chung-Ang University's Graduate School of Communication, said, "Security incidents do more than damage corporate image; they shake the entire expense structure," adding, "In the end, they can act as pressure factors on internal compensation systems such as labor cost management or wage increase rates."