People walk down a street in Seoul’s financial district of Yeouido on Sept. 23, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The vast majority of high-income earners feel that they are ‘middle class or lower’.
The biennial social survey conducted by Statistics Korea last year showed that 91.1 percent of respondents with a monthly income of 6 million won (US$4,980) or higher feel that their social and economic status falls under ‘middle class or lower’.
Among them, 34.7 percent felt they are in the ‘mid-low class’, while 12.8 percent believe they are in the ‘low class’.
This unusual perception is attributed to the gap between labor and property income.
Statistics Korea reported that as of Nov. 1, 2020, the average price of a home owned by households stood at 324 million won, up by 49 million won from the previous year.
The average price of a home among the top 10 percent was 1.3 billion won, up by 206 million won.
In contrast, the average amount of labor income in the fourth quarter of 2020 stood at 3.4 million won, down by 0.5 percent from the previous year.
As property income skyrockets among the top 10 percent, people are beginning to endow less value on labor income.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
