'1.8 Billion vs. 40.4 Million'... Income Gap Between Korea's Top 0.1% and Average

Income Threshold for Top 0.1% in Korea "Must Exceed 740 Million Won Annually"
"Income Polarization Deepens, Redistribution Function Must Be Strengthened"

It was found that integrated income, which combines earned income and business income, exceeds 742 million KRW per year to be in the top 0.1%. Their average annual income reached 1.8 billion KRW.

On the 17th, Yang Kyung-sook, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, disclosed the results of analyzing the 'Integrated Income 1000-Percentile' data received from the National Tax Service. Integrated income refers to an individual's total income, including comprehensive income such as business income, financial income, rental income, and earned income.

According to the data, the threshold for the top 0.1% of integrated income in 2022 was 742 million KRW. This means that earning more than 740 million KRW in 2022 placed one in the top 0.1% in South Korea.

The average income per person in the top 0.1% was 1.7964 billion KRW. This increased by 22.1% from 1.471 billion KRW in 2018, four years earlier, surpassing the overall average income growth rate of 13.8%. During the same period, the overall average income rose from 35.5 million KRW to 40.4 million KRW.

The proportion of total income earned by the top 0.1% also rose by 0.3 percentage points, from 4.2% in 2018 to 4.5% in 2022.

Meanwhile, the average income of the top 1% in 2022 was 479.3 million KRW. The share held by the top 1% increased from 11.2% to 11.9%, and the share held by the top 10% rose from 36.8% to 37.6%.

Accordingly, income polarization is increasingly intensifying. The income of the top 20% averaged 110 million KRW, which was 25.6 times that of the bottom 20% (4.29 million KRW). After slightly decreasing from 23.9 times in 2018 to 23.7 times in 2019, the gap widened again to 25.3 times in 2020 and 25.7 times in 2021.

Rep. Yang said, "The concentration of income and wealth in the upper brackets is becoming more pronounced," adding, "To alleviate income inequality, the redistributive function of fiscal and tax policies, especially support for vulnerable groups, must be strengthened."

Meanwhile, according to National Tax Service data, there were 20,539,614 wage earners in 2022. Their total annual wages amounted to 865.4655 trillion KRW. On average per person, this equates to 42.14 million KRW annually, or 3.51 million KRW per month in salary. After deducting the four major insurances and taxes, the monthly net income was slightly over 3 million KRW.