KBS Blasted for Paying High Salaries
Published on | Source
By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
A ruling party lawmaker Thursday criticized KBS, one of the nation's major television networks, for lax personnel management.
Rep. Lee Kyeong-jae of the governing Grand National Party said the public broadcaster has paid excessive salaries to its employees.
The average annual wage of KBS employees reached 76.2 million won ($63,830) per head in 2007.
Lee pointed out that the nationwide broadcaster has an "inverted pyramid personnel structure", saying it has too many senior positions.
Out of seven levels, those in the top-two level positions accounted for 52.4 percent of all employees last year, up 3.2 percent from a year ago.
Those in the third level decreased from 31.4 percent to 27.5 during the same period, according to the lawmaker.
KBS spent 35.5 percent of its budget in personnel expenses in 2008, much higher than other television networks such as MBC and EBS, Lee said. Personnel expenditures in MBC and EBS made up 21.7 and 24.6 percent of their expenditures in the same year, respectively.
Han Jin-mann, a communications professor at Kangwon National University in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, said that another serious problem of KBS is its unwillingness to hire regular workers.
Out of its six TV dramas currently being aired, three are being produced by outsourcing companies whose employees get paid much less than those of KBS. The starting salary of freelance staffers is about 800,000 won per month.
Even for the three dramas produced in-house, most staff members are made up of people outsourced from production companies outside.
"I struggle to survive with a bare minimum of money that I earn", said a freelance program director at KBS on condition of anonymity.
"The income polarization in the company is so great that I feel like a second-class citizen. I do more work than them, but I get paid much".
Staff Reporter
A ruling party lawmaker Thursday criticized KBS, one of the nation's major television networks, for lax personnel management.
Rep. Lee Kyeong-jae of the governing Grand National Party said the public broadcaster has paid excessive salaries to its employees.
The average annual wage of KBS employees reached 76.2 million won ($63,830) per head in 2007.
Lee pointed out that the nationwide broadcaster has an "inverted pyramid personnel structure", saying it has too many senior positions.
Out of seven levels, those in the top-two level positions accounted for 52.4 percent of all employees last year, up 3.2 percent from a year ago.
Those in the third level decreased from 31.4 percent to 27.5 during the same period, according to the lawmaker.
KBS spent 35.5 percent of its budget in personnel expenses in 2008, much higher than other television networks such as MBC and EBS, Lee said. Personnel expenditures in MBC and EBS made up 21.7 and 24.6 percent of their expenditures in the same year, respectively.
Han Jin-mann, a communications professor at Kangwon National University in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, said that another serious problem of KBS is its unwillingness to hire regular workers.
Out of its six TV dramas currently being aired, three are being produced by outsourcing companies whose employees get paid much less than those of KBS. The starting salary of freelance staffers is about 800,000 won per month.
Even for the three dramas produced in-house, most staff members are made up of people outsourced from production companies outside.
"I struggle to survive with a bare minimum of money that I earn", said a freelance program director at KBS on condition of anonymity.
"The income polarization in the company is so great that I feel like a second-class citizen. I do more work than them, but I get paid much".
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