Korea's average salary $29,709, 87% less than top 1%: report

The average pretax annual salary in South Korea came to 41.23 million won ($29,709) last year, with the vast majority of high-paying jobs concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area, highlighting the need to solve significant salary disparities between average and top earners, as well as between regions.

According to data from the National Tax Service released by Rep. Ahn Do-geol of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Friday, the nation’s total number of salaried workers reached 20,539,614 in the 2022 tax year. They made a combined amount of 865.5 trillion won, with an average salary per person before taxes hovering at 41.23 million won.

Among salaried wage earners, the top 1 percent made an average of 331.3 million won -- 703.54 percent more than average salary earners.

By region, the top 1 percent in Seoul earned the highest average annual salary at 560 million won each, followed by Gyeonggi Province at 308 million won each. Gangwon Province and North Jeolla Province were the only regions where the average income of the top earners remained below 200 million won, at 187.6 million won and 197.6 million won per person, respectively.

In addition, about 54.3 percent of the country’s top 1 percent – 111,601 out of a total of 205,396 individuals – were employed in the Seoul metropolitan area, which includes Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon.

Meanwhile, the ultrarich top 0.1 percent of earners reported an average income of 987.9 million won nationwide per person -- 2,296 percent more than the average salaried worker.

Salaries for the top 0.1 percent were the highest in Seoul, with these elite earners making 1.9 billion won in salary there, followed by Gyeonggi Province at 811.2 million won, Busan at 764.3 million won and Jeju at 701.9 million won.

Ahn underscored in particular the stark pay gap between Seoul and other regions, noting that top earners in Seoul make more than double the income of the same cohort in other regions. “We need to develop high-value-added industries to expand quality, high-paying jobs outside the capital,” according to him.

(sahn@heraldcorp.com)