The total amount of fines the government collected hit a record high last year mainly due to its tough response to unfair corporate practices, data showed. According to a report from the Finance Ministry, which was submitted to opposition lawmaker Choi Jae-sung, the government collected fines amounting to 3.2 trillion won ($2.86 billion) in 2014, up 12.9 percent from the previous year.In particular, fines from tax dodgers and traffic violators tripled over four years to 949.1 billion won, with t

The cumulative overseas construction orders of South Korean builders has exceeded $700 billion since they first ventured abroad in 1965, data showed Thursday.According to the Ministry of Land and the International Construction Information Service, the amount of construction order commissions reported was $699.54 billion as of June 10. However, if Samsung C&T’s order of $694 million for the WestConnex construction in Sydney, Australia, on June 4 it included, the total reaches $700.23 billion.Sout

Employees working at South Korean conglomerates earned an average of 75.64 million won ($67,000) last year, said Job Korea, a leading local employment website. The recruiting company collected salary data from corporate reports submitted by 90 of Korea’s top 100 companies. Among the 887,636 employees, including contract workers, 75.1 percent were male and 24.9 percent were female.According to the data, male employees earned roughly 30 million won more than female colleagues, as men received an a

The number of childbirths in South Korea increased to the its highest level in two years, according to a government report released Wednesday.Statistics Korea said about 40,400 babies were born in March this year, an increase of 6.3 percent from 38,000 reported in the same month last year.It also said the number of babies born during the first quarter of this year reached 117,700, up 1.5 percent from 116,000.“The number of women aged over 35 having babies played a part in the rise of newborn num