The wage gap between large and small and medium-sized firms has widened the most since relevant statistics began to be compiled in 2008. 

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor and Statistics Korea, the average monthly wage at companies with 300 or more full-time employees was five-point-zero-two million won last year, or about four-thousand U.S. dollars, up three-point-nine percent from the previous year.

Meanwhile, the average wage at small and medium-sized companies with five to 299 full-time employees stood at three-point-eleven million won last year, up three-point-four percent from the previous year. The wage increase rate in large firms was also higher than in small and medium-sized firms for the second consecutive year.

The numbers show that employees at small and medium-sized firms earned 62 percent of the wages for workers in large firms, the lowest figure since 2008.
  
The widening income gap is attributable to financial difficulties suffered by small and medium-sized firms amid the global economic slowdown.