ID :
198609
Tue, 08/02/2011 - 02:09
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/198609
The shortlink copeid
Overpaid bankers
Korea Times
(Yonhap) - Thirty-four financial institutions, including 16 banks, have decided to go on strike in September unless they get a pay raise of more than 8 percent. Their planned strike lacks in logic, fairness and reflects greed.
Local clerical bankers get more pay than their American counterparts. The average annual salary of 52 million won for financial workers last year is 17 million won more than what manufacturing employees received. The average salary of 10 leading banks was 72 million won, nearly double the manufacturing average.
Such state-run banks as KDB and Exim Bank rake in earnings through de facto monopoly on business. Unlike manufacturers, they thrive on the protected domestic market.
A few big fish in a small pond monopolize the domestic banking market. They generate income in an easy way and through oligarchic, cartel-like collusion. A tiny portion of their income comes from overseas business.
Local banks generate more than 80 percent of earnings from interest income, higher than the less than 50 percent for global banks.
Banks have adopted an easy way of widening the difference between interest rates of deposits and loans to 3.01 percentage points this year. A 0.1 percentage point hike in the margin means additional burden of one trillion won for borrowers.
Financial firms should not thrive at the expense of manufacturing exporters and consumers. This erodes the international competitiveness of manufacturers.
The average pay hike was 5.1 percent for all companies this year, lower than the more than 8 percent demanded by financial workers.
In times of crisis, taxpayers injected massive funds into financial companies. Since the financial crisis in 1997, the government used taxpayers??? money amounting to 168 trillion won in order to clean up the balance sheets of troubled banks and other financial institutions.
Unionists must refrain from giving the impression of extorting salary from non-regular workers. The widening income gap stirs a sense of relative deprivation among non-regular workers as they are underpaid even though they work the same hours. Converting non-regular workers, about 40 percent of the total payrolls, into regular payroll should get priority of both management and unions.
Banks generated record earnings through an easy method of overcharging lending rates and underpaying deposit rates rather than through fair competition. Their record earnings mean potential erosion of manufacturing competitiveness.
Since 2009, freshmen workers had their salary slashed by 20 percent due to the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression in 1929. It is reasonable to restore their salary to the normal level. The union must embrace non-regular workers for social fairness and cohesion.
Financial regulators should revamp the current predatory cartel-like business practices. Before hiking pay, banks must slash interest margins and service fees for customers.
Now is time to retool financial companies, including banks, and promote the rights of non-regular workers. This is necessary for honing the competitiveness of manufacturers, promoting social cohesion and easing the pain of borrowers, who endorsed the use of their taxes to bail out the troubled financial companies.
(Yonhap) - Thirty-four financial institutions, including 16 banks, have decided to go on strike in September unless they get a pay raise of more than 8 percent. Their planned strike lacks in logic, fairness and reflects greed.
Local clerical bankers get more pay than their American counterparts. The average annual salary of 52 million won for financial workers last year is 17 million won more than what manufacturing employees received. The average salary of 10 leading banks was 72 million won, nearly double the manufacturing average.
Such state-run banks as KDB and Exim Bank rake in earnings through de facto monopoly on business. Unlike manufacturers, they thrive on the protected domestic market.
A few big fish in a small pond monopolize the domestic banking market. They generate income in an easy way and through oligarchic, cartel-like collusion. A tiny portion of their income comes from overseas business.
Local banks generate more than 80 percent of earnings from interest income, higher than the less than 50 percent for global banks.
Banks have adopted an easy way of widening the difference between interest rates of deposits and loans to 3.01 percentage points this year. A 0.1 percentage point hike in the margin means additional burden of one trillion won for borrowers.
Financial firms should not thrive at the expense of manufacturing exporters and consumers. This erodes the international competitiveness of manufacturers.
The average pay hike was 5.1 percent for all companies this year, lower than the more than 8 percent demanded by financial workers.
In times of crisis, taxpayers injected massive funds into financial companies. Since the financial crisis in 1997, the government used taxpayers??? money amounting to 168 trillion won in order to clean up the balance sheets of troubled banks and other financial institutions.
Unionists must refrain from giving the impression of extorting salary from non-regular workers. The widening income gap stirs a sense of relative deprivation among non-regular workers as they are underpaid even though they work the same hours. Converting non-regular workers, about 40 percent of the total payrolls, into regular payroll should get priority of both management and unions.
Banks generated record earnings through an easy method of overcharging lending rates and underpaying deposit rates rather than through fair competition. Their record earnings mean potential erosion of manufacturing competitiveness.
Since 2009, freshmen workers had their salary slashed by 20 percent due to the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression in 1929. It is reasonable to restore their salary to the normal level. The union must embrace non-regular workers for social fairness and cohesion.
Financial regulators should revamp the current predatory cartel-like business practices. Before hiking pay, banks must slash interest margins and service fees for customers.
Now is time to retool financial companies, including banks, and promote the rights of non-regular workers. This is necessary for honing the competitiveness of manufacturers, promoting social cohesion and easing the pain of borrowers, who endorsed the use of their taxes to bail out the troubled financial companies.
