Doctor incomes kept rising, but were blocked by pets... What exactly happened?

Among Professionals, Doctors Have the Highest Average Income

The income growth rate of veterinarians recorded an annual 12.6%, ranking first among major professional occupations.

On the 26th, Ahn Do-geol, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, received data from the National Tax Service titled '2014~2022 Business Income Status by Professional Occupation.' According to the data, the average business income of veterinarians increased by 12.6% annually, showing the highest growth rate.

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The average income refers to the average of the total business income reported and attributed to the National Tax Service, while the median income refers to the business income reported by the person positioned at the 50th percentile among reporters.

The average business income of veterinarians increased by about 50 million KRW, from 31.45 million KRW in 2014 to 81.16 million KRW in 2022. This is analyzed to be due to the increase in households raising companion animals, which has led to a rise in medical demand.

Following veterinarians, doctors (8.3%), labor attorneys (8.1%), architects (6.0%), pharmacists (5.5%), and accountants (4.3%) showed high business income growth rates in that order.

Among major professional occupations, doctors had the highest income. The average income of doctors was 400 million KRW. This was followed by accountants (220 million KRW), tax accountants (120 million KRW), dentists (100 million KRW), veterinarians (100 million KRW), Korean medicine doctors (100 million KRW), patent attorneys (90 million KRW), customs brokers (80 million KRW), pharmacists (80 million KRW), and lawyers (70 million KRW).

The median income was highest for doctors (270 million KRW), followed by dentists (160 million KRW), accountants (90 million KRW), pharmacists (80 million KRW), Korean medicine doctors (70 million KRW), tax accountants (60 million KRW), patent attorneys (50 million KRW), veterinarians (50 million KRW), customs brokers (40 million KRW), and lawyers (30 million KRW).

Not only was there an income gap between professional occupations, but a phenomenon of 'income concentration' among top earners within occupations was also observed. Occupations where the average income was higher than the median income included doctors, accountants, tax accountants, veterinarians, and customs brokers, with the 'income concentration' phenomenon being particularly evident among doctors and accountants.

Assemblyman Ahn Do-geol stated, "While the average business income across all industries recently stands at about 19 million KRW, the average business income of the top 10 professional occupations was 196 million KRW, showing an income gap close to 10 times."