SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s income inequality among self-employed business owners has reached striking levels, with the top 10% of business income earners making seven times the average income, according to new tax data. National Assembly data released on October 27 reveals that the top 10% of business income earners, approximately 847,354 individuals, [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – Data released by South Korea’s National Tax Service has revealed significant income disparities among the country’s workforce, with the average annual salary standing at 41.23 million won while top earners command substantially higher wages, particularly in the capital region. According to figures obtained by Representative Ahn Do-geol of the Democratic [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – A staggering 81 percent of South Koreans risk facing an income drought after retirement, according to a recent survey, essentially equating retirement with poverty for a large segment of the population. The survey by the Korea Insurance Research Institute (KIRI) revealed that over 80 percent of non-retirees are ill-prepared for [...]
SEOUL, June 16 (Korea Bizwire) – The expanding proportion of seniors since the mid-1990s has exacerbated income inequality among households nationwide, the central bank said Thursday. South Korea’s Gini coefficient for market income gradually increased for older age groups until individuals reached their 50s, but it experienced a significant spike among individuals in their 60s [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The top 0.1 percent of wealthy individuals in South Korea earned nearly 70 times more than the median income earners in 2021, data showed Saturday. Statistics from the National Tax Service cited by Rep. Yang Kyung-sook of the opposition Democratic Party also showed the share of the total income [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — The income gap between the haves and have-nots in South Korea widened in 2021 amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Thursday. The distribution ratio for disposable income, a key barometer of income equality, reached 5.96 last year, up from 5.85 the previous year, according to data from Statistics [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Korea Bizwire) – The income gap between the haves and have-nots in South Korea narrowed in 2020 from a year earlier on the back of the government’s provision of emergency cash handouts amid the pandemic, data showed Thursday. The distribution ratio for disposable income, a key barometer of income equality, reached 5.85 [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Consumption inequality in South Korea worsened last year as the coronavirus pandemic undercut “discretionary” spending by lower-income earners due to toughened curbs on gatherings and business operation, a central bank report showed Friday. According to the report by the Bank of Korea, the consumption inequality index — a major [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half of South Koreans are in favor of raising taxes for high income earners to mitigate the polarization that has deepened during the pandemic, a poll showed Sunday. In the survey of 1,000 South Koreans aged 18 or older conducted last week, 57.4 percent of respondents agreed [...]
SEJONG, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s household income rose in 2018 from a year earlier, and the income gap between the haves and have-nots narrowed, as employment situations of the low-income bracket improved amid efforts to bridge the income gap, a government report showed Tuesday. The average household earned 58.28 million won (US$49,688) [...]