SINCE becoming South Korea’s finance minister in July, Choi Kyung-hwan has been busy. First came a 41 trillion won ($39 billion) stimulus package. Now Mr Choi is trying to pep up the economy further by getting South Korean firms to spend more on wages and dividends.

Mr Choi’s scheme, submitted to South Korea’s parliament this week, will tax companies’ cash piles on the grounds that corporate stinginess is holding the country back. Cash reserves at South Korea’s ten biggest chaebol, or conglomerates, have doubled in five years. Together, the country’s non-financial firms hold over 450 trillion won. Though corporate earnings trebled between 2000 and 2012, household income in Korea barely doubled. The pace of salary growth has dropped, from 4.4% a year between 2001 and 2005 to just 0.3% a year since 2011.

If the plan is approved, the 4,000 or so South Korean firms with over 50 billion won in capital will pay a 10% surcharge on their corporate tax rate unless they have spent a certain proportion of their income on dividends, investment and wages. The government has yet to set the threshold, but it is likely to be 60-80%. Firms will also be exempt if they spend 20-40% of income on dividends and wages alone, a nod to the low investment rate of the service sector.