By Choi Sung-jin
Rival political parties are moving to make public the annual salaries of the large shareholders of listed companies even if they are not registered members of the executive board.
If the revised bill wins the National Assembly's approval, most owners of family-controlled conglomerates will have to disclose their emoluments, according to parliamentary and financial sources. The bipartisan amendment will likely pass the Assembly's legal reviewing subcommittee this week.
Registered executives of listed companies who earn 500 million won ($434,780) or more a year are now obliged to make public their pay every quarter. As more large shareholders of chaebol subsidiaries resign from their registered executive posts, however, there has been a suspicion they are avoiding disclosure of income to the public.
The new law will oblige the five highest-paid executives of a listed company to make public their income whether they are registered board members or not.
"The government and governing party had shown negative responses to the expanded disclosure rule but turned toward a positive stance in recent days," said Rep. Kim Gi-juhn of the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy.
To ease the executives' burden, however, the Assembly's State Affairs Committee is also considering reducing the disclosure to once a year, from four times, he said.