The average salary of employees in small and mid-sized enterprises(SMEs) still accounts for about two-thirds of what their counterparts in large companies earn annually. 

According to the Korea Federation of SMEs on Thursday, a SME worker earned an average of three-million-351-thousand won in 2017, or 68-point-six percent of the average five-million-145-thousand won paid to an employee at a large-sized company. 

Their disparity, however, does mark an improvement from figures in 2016, when SME workers earned only 62-point-nine percent of their big company counterparts. 

The respective figures stood at 64-point-one in both 2012 and 2013, before falling slightly to 62-point-three percent in 2014 and 62 percent in 2015.