Chief executive officers (CEOs) working for South Korea's 100 largest businesses earned an average of just under 1.67 billion won (US$1.59 million) in 2010, a report showed Tuesday.

   According to Chaebol.com, their earnings include salaries, dividends and stock options, with top executives of Samsung Group, the country's largest family-owned conglomerate, receiving the most last year.

   The on-line provider of information on South Korean conglomerates said Samsung Electronics Co. Vice Chairman Lee Yoon-woo ranked first on the list by earning a record 41.95 billion won last year.

   The executive of the world's largest memory chipmaker earned 5.99 billion won in wages, with the rest coming from the sale of his stock option shares and various dividend earnings.

   Lee was followed by Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung, head of Samsung's chip and display panel production business who earned 18.01 billion won.

   Samsung Electronics Chief Financial Officer Yoon Ju-hwa came in third with Jung Yeon-joo, head of Samsung C&T Corp. -- the construction arm of Samsung -- ranking fourth.

   Among the non-owner CEOs, managers of SK Innovation Co., Hanwha Chemical Corp., SK C&C and LG earned more than 2.50 billion won last year.

   Despite the high level of pay, Chaebol.com said the average South Korean CEO only earned about 11 percent of what their counterparts were earning in the United States.

   "According to findings published by Forbes, CEOs working for the 100 largest companies in the United States earned an average of 14.8 billion won last year," it said.

   Compared to Korean executives whose salaries accounted for about 72 percent of all earnings, U.S. CEOs earned most of their money through stock options and dividend earnings, it added.

Source; Yonhap News (Aug.2, 2011)