After the latest low-wage controversy surrounding the company owned by Davichi's Kang Min Kyung, the annual salary given by a company run by Nam Goong Min is garnering attention.
The average annual salary of the management company NKM Film, run by Nam Goong Min, was found to be 35.13 million KRW (~28,374.47 USD) as of 2021. Although it was 12% lower than the industry standard, it was higher than the legal minimum wage standard.
Currently, there are three employees working at the company with a 0% resignation rate. It was found that the lowest salary paid in NKM Film is 22.79 million KRW (~18,411 USD) and the highest paid salary is 45.42 million KRW (~36,675 USD). Nevertheless, the lowest-paid annual salary is higher than the 2021 standard minimum salary, which is 21.86 million KRW (~17,651 USD.
In July 2015, Nam Goong Min established the film company 'Namgoong Film'. He recently set up an office in Seongsu-dong, Seoul for full-fledged content production. In the process, the name of his company was also changed to 'NKM Film.'
According to people in the entertainment industry, Nam Goong Min is well known for taking good care of his manager but also his stylists, and other staff around him. Along with going on vacations with them, Nam Goong Min had also given his staff member a car to drive to work.
Meanwhile, Kang Min Kyung was under fire after she publicized a job posting for a three-month contract customer service job for her apparel company Avie Muah on her personal Instagram story. The job posting asks for an experienced degree holder with three to seven years of experience. However, the annual salary was advertised to be 25 million KRW (approx. US$19.7k). Considering the minimum hourly wage in 2023 is 9,620 KRW (approx. US$7.60), this amount is way too low for an experienced role.
Thereafter, more netizens stepped up to give an account of their experiences while working for Kang Min Kyung's company or interviewing for a position. Many had left bad reviews commenting on the fact that the company had two to three rounds of interviews–which is excessive for a small-medium-sized clothing company. In addition to that, some of them have noted that the interview questions that were asked were also very weird, such as "I was asked if I would work overtime, if I have physical strength, and what kind of things I would value in life," hinting on the company's overtime work culture.
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so the industry standard is around 32k USD and the middle employee is earning ~30k USD (2k under the industry standard), while then we also have the two given figures of the lowest and highest earner.
but what does "industry standard" mean in this case? there are so many different people in the industry so are they all being grouped together? if so, the "industry standard" loses its value as data. not only that, but it doesn't say how many hours each employee is working, what level of education/experience they needed, whether it is an apprenticeship, etc. etc.
honestly, in this situation there needs to be more information.