"If You Raise My Salary, I'll Quit Without Looking Back"... The Youngest Employees Are Disappearing from Companies

Four out of ten employees in their twenties would change jobs unconditionally for a salary increase
Only 23% are satisfied with their current salary, while 60% consider job change depending on the raise amount

Four out of ten employees in their twenties said they would be willing to change jobs unconditionally if they were offered a salary increase.

Many job seekers visiting the 2025 Mid-sized Companies Job Fair held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on April 23 are looking at the job posting board.

According to a survey on "current salary satisfaction" conducted by JobKorea Content Lab on August 7 among 1,088 employees in their 20s to 40s, only 23% of respondents said they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their current salary. The remaining 77% expressed dissatisfaction, and among them, 60% said they would decide whether to change jobs depending on the amount of the salary increase.

In particular, the proportion of those who answered, "I would change jobs unconditionally if there was an offer of a salary increase," was highest among those in their twenties at 43.1%, the highest among all age groups.

The average desired salary increase rate for those considering a job change was 11.8%. By age group, it was 11.1% for those in their twenties, 11.7% for those in their thirties, and 12.3% for those aged forty and above.

Additionally, 55% of respondents said they were curious about the "average salary for the same industry and job," indicating a high level of interest in salary information.

Byun Jisung, head of the Content Marketing Team at JobKorea, analyzed, "The younger MZ generation is particularly likely to actively use salary data as a benchmark for negotiation and job changes."

According to the "May 2025 Supplementary Survey on the Economically Active Population - Youth" released by Statistics Korea in July, 39.7% of young employees received a first job monthly wage between 2 million and 3 million won, the largest proportion. This was followed by 1.5 million to 2 million won (28.3%) and 1 million to 1.5 million won (11.1%). Compared to last year, the proportion of higher wage brackets, such as 2 million to 3 million won (up 4.5 percentage points) and over 3 million won (up 1.7 percentage points), increased, indicating a slight improvement in wage levels.

The number of young people quitting their jobs due to dissatisfaction with working conditions continues to rise. The most common reason young people left their first job was "dissatisfaction with working conditions such as pay and working hours," accounting for 46.4%. This is an increase of 0.9 percentage points from 45.5% last year.