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The Korea Herald
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THE INVESTOR
March 29, 2024

Economy

Top 1% Korean wage earners make as much as bottom 30%: data

  • PUBLISHED :April 08, 2018 - 11:46
  • UPDATED :April 08, 2018 - 12:15
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[THE INVESTOR] The top 1 percent of Korean salaried employees are making as much money as those at the bottom 30 percent combined, data showed on April 8, casting concern over the bipolarization of workers.

According to the data compiled by the National Tax Service, released by Rep. Park Kwang-on of the Democratic Party of Korea, the 177,400 workers in the upper 1 percent bracket earned 43.2 trillion won (US$40 billion) in 2016.




The figure translates into each employee in the bracket making 20.3 million won per month. Over the cited period, the median income of Korean salaried workers stood at 2.01 million won.

The total salaries earned by these high earning people were similar to those earned by 5.49 million people that make up the bottom 30 percent on the wage scale.

Half of salaried workers earned less than 2 million won a month, while the bottom 30 percent made below 1.26 million won, which is the minimum wage.

The average income for Korean salaried workers came to 33.5 million won in 2016, which is roughly 2.79 million won per month. The figure is based on incomes reported to the tax agency.

“The wage gap is the main reason for the bipolarization and inequality (of the society),” Rep. Park claimed. “We need to expand the number of jobs and narrow the wage gap among regular and temporary workers, or those between conglomerates and small businesses.”

By Park Ga-young and newswires (gypark@heraldcorp.com)

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