The share of South Korean wage earners making an average of 5 million won ($3,500) or more a month hit a record high in the first half of this year, driven by inflation and bonus payments. Yet one in 10 wage earners took home less than 1 million won, pointing to deepening polarization.
Wage earners making 5 million won or more a month accounted for 17.6% of the total as of April, up 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the first-half 2026 regional employment survey released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics on the 27th. That is the highest first-half figure since the data series began in 2013.
Those earning between 3 million and 4 million won made up 22.8%, while the 4 million to 5 million won bracket accounted for 11.5%. Workers earning 3 million won or more came to 51.9% of the total, topping half for the first time.
The share of workers earning 5 million won or more was highest in finance and insurance at 40.5%, followed by professional, scientific and technical services at 37.5% and information and communications at 35.8%. In manufacturing, the share rose to 25.4% from 22.9%, a gain attributed in part to bonus payments in the semiconductor industry. By contrast, the share of workers earning less than 1 million won rose to 9.8% from 9.6%. In health and social welfare services, only 5.8% earned 5 million won or more.
The total number of wage earners stood at 22.373 million, down 43,000 from a year earlier. It was the first first-half decline since 2020, the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Welfare led the gains in employment. The number of workers at non-residential welfare facilities rose 155,000 to 1.843 million, with those aged 50 and over accounting for 141,000 of the increase. Employment at hospitals and clinics rose 64,000 and 26,000, respectively. Crop cultivation shed 82,000 workers, while architectural and engineering services lost 62,000.