It’s no secret that working in the oil and gas industry can earn you ludicrous wages, but what about a decade’s worth of bonuses?
In South Korea, oil and gas firm Hyundai Oilbank recently announced that it was handing out 1,000 percent of base salaries as bonuses to its employees for the year of 2022.
While the company stopped short of revealing exactly how much in bonuses it was lavishing on its staff this time around, reports have stated that the company ended up giving its workers bonuses around KRW 121 million (US$94,800) per person on average for the year 2021. This was indicated as being 600 percent of the base salary level, or about six years’ worth of pay.
The Korea Herald reported that the company saw a 226-percent increase in profits in the third quarter of 2022 alone, with the total profits coming up to around KRW 2.8 trillion (US$2.9 billion) within the same period.
These enormous payouts — according to anonymous industry experts — were attributed to the surge in global oil prices, with the protracted Russian invasion of Ukraine creating scarcity, which also coincided with the demand for heat during the winter months towards the end of the year.
Adding to this, the decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) — led by Saudi Arabia and Russia — to cut down oil production to only two million barrels a day has also jacked up the global price of oil owing to even more scarcity.
In South Korea, other oil and gas refining companies are also likely to introduce similar bonuses for their employees, with the likes of SK Energy, S-Oil, and GS Caltex all to probably follow suit.
