Average wage of foreign employees in South Korea to exceed 30 million won

This prediction is based on year-end tax adjustments of foreign employees' official tax data, with the majority of these workers coming from China.
By: | February 8, 2022
Topics: Compensation and Benefits | News | South Korea

The average yearly wage for foreign employees in South Korea is estimated to have exceeded 30 million won (US$25,000) in 2021, based on official tax data. 

The prediction, which was based on year-end tax adjustments of foreign employees’ official tax data, showed that about 545,000 foreign employees made year-end tax adjustments for their earnings in 2020, at an average yearly wage of 29.26 million won (US$24,409), with a cumulative wage of 15.8 trillion won (US$13.18 billion).

By nationality, some 36.3% of the 545,000 foreign workers were Chinese nationals. This was followed by workers from Vietnam, Nepal, Cambodia and the Philippines, show data from the tax agency. 

READ: South Korea’s working age population expected to fall by 3.2 million in 2030

However, US nationals contributed to the largest portion in terms of tax report volume, at 363.3 billion won (US$303.06 million), or 37.8% of the total 962 billion won (US$0.8 billion). 

Foreign employees in south Korea are obliged to report year-end tax adjustments for their earnings in 2021 by the end of this month, writes The Korea Herald.