"They Say Everyone Makes 4 Million Won a Month"...But the Real Statistics Tell a Different Story

The Pitfall of Averages Inflated by the Top 0.1%

Some argue that the "average annual salary of 45 million won" for South Korean workers is inflated by a small number of high earners.

On the 18th, according to the "2024 tax-year employment income filing data" submitted to the National Tax Service by People Power Party lawmaker Park Sunghoon, a member of the National Assembly’s Strategy and Finance Committee, the average annual earned income per worker in South Korea was approximately 45 million won (about 3.75 million won per month).

According to the '2024 employment income filing data' submitted to the National Tax Service, the average annual employment income per worker in South Korea was approximately 45 million won (3.75 million won per month). Getty Images

However, when workers are lined up by income, the median annual salary of the person in the very middle was only 34.17 million won (about 2.85 million won per month). In other words, there is a gap of more than 10 million won between the mean and the median, and it was found that half of South Korean workers do not even receive 3 million won per month (before tax).

Critics say the "average annual salary of 45 million won" for South Korean workers is a figure inflated by a small number of high earners. Getty Images

The higher up the income ladder, the more extreme the income gap became. The average annual salary of workers in the top 10% income bracket was 91.17 million won, about twice the overall average. The average salary of the top 1% was 346.3 million won, eight times higher than the overall average, and the average annual salary of the ultra-high-income top 0.1% group, numbering only about 20,000 people, was 999.37 million won. This is more than 22 times the overall average.

In other words, the salary levels in the so-called "ultra-high-income bracket" structurally push up the overall average for all workers. Once this statistical distortion is excluded, the income of the bottom 80% of workers falls far below the average.

Excluding the top 20% (who earn an average of 65.34 million won), the remaining 80% of workers have an average annual salary of around 30 million won. This means the actual income level of 8 out of 10 workers remains below the headline average of 45 million won.

Experts added that policies are needed that accurately reflect the real income distribution so that many workers do not feel left behind because of the illusion created by the average.