Top 0.1% Annual Salary is 830 Million KRW, 28.8 Times Higher Than Median Income Earners

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] The average annual earned income of the top 0.1% of wage earners in South Korea was recorded at 833.39 million KRW. The income of median earners was 28.95 million KRW, showing a trend of widening income disparity between classes.

According to data submitted by the National Tax Service to Kang Jun-hyun, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, in 2020, the income of the top 0.1% wage earners was 28.8 times that of median earners. This gap widened from 27.2 times the previous year. The average annual earned income of the top 0.1% increased by 65.76 million KRW (8.6%) in one year from 2019, while median earners saw only a 0.71 million KRW (2.5%) increase.

Even based on the top 1%, the gap widened from 9.6 times (207.44 million KRW) in 2019 to 9.9 times (285.6 million KRW) in 2020 compared to median earners. The salary income of the top 10% increased by 3.4 million KRW (2.9%) from 116.52 million KRW in 2019 to 119.92 million KRW in 2020. The average annual income of all wage earners rose by 0.85 million KRW (2.3%) from 37.43 million KRW in 2019 to 38.28 million KRW in 2020. However, the income of the bottom 20% decreased from 6.22 million KRW in 2019 to 6.14 million KRW in 2020.

Representative Kang stated, “We must prevent income concentration in the top tier, and for this, government tax and fiscal policies should focus on increasing the income of low-income workers.”