Work & incomeSouth Korea
Average monthly salary in South Korea
What does a month of average work pay, in what it buys?
South Korea's average monthly salary is $4,525 PPP/mo — #19 of 92 countries on the atlas (higher is better). Period 2022.
$4,525PPP/mo
Source: ILO monthly earnings of employees (EAR_EMTA mean + EAR_EMTM median)
The average employee in South Korea earns about $4,525 a month before tax, measured in dollars adjusted for what they buy locally.
Among 92 countries
- Rank
- #19 of 92
- higher is better
- Ranked behind
- 79 %
- 73 of 92 countries
In Asia: #1 of 24vs median $1,986 PPP/mo: +128 % (better)
What the average is made of
A national average hides the spread beneath it. In South Korea the best-paid occupation group earns $13,166 a month and the worst-paid $2,643 — 5.0× from top to bottom, which is 77 of 99 countries on that spread.
| Occupation group | Monthly | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Managerschief executives, senior officials, and managers in production, sales, hospitality and retail | $13,166 | 23 % | |
| Professionalsdoctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, lawyers, accountants, software developers, scientists | $5,132 | 38 % | |
| Clerical supportoffice clerks, secretaries, tellers, receptionists, records and stores clerks | $5,040 | 30 % | |
| Machine operatorsmachine operators, assemblers, drivers of lorries, buses, trains and taxis | $4,196 | 22 % | |
| Craft and tradesbuilders, electricians, plumbers, welders, mechanics, printers, food processors | $4,103 | 37 % | |
| Agriculture and fishingfarmers, forestry workers, fishermen, hunters | $3,090 | 27 % | |
| Service and salesshop assistants, cooks, waiters, hairdressers, carers, police and firefighters | $3,083 | 46 % | |
| Elementary occupationscleaners, labourers, kitchen helpers, refuse workers, delivery staff | $2,643 | 22 % |
These are ISCO-08 major groups, the finest breakdown published across countries. The figure for a group is the average across everything inside it, so it is not the pay for any one of the jobs named — where we hold job-title figures, they are on their own pages. The full ladder for South Korea →
The neighbourhood
| # | Country | Monthly earnings | vs South Korea |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | Cyprus | $4,911 PPP/mo | +$386 PPP/mo |
| 18 | Canada | $4,571 PPP/mo | +$46 PPP/mo |
| 19 | South Korea | $4,525 PPP/mo | — |
| 20 | Singapore | $4,420 PPP/mo | −$106 PPP/mo |
| 21 | Lithuania | $4,241 PPP/mo | −$284 PPP/mo |
Mean monthly earnings of employees in PPP international dollars (ILO). Reaches 91 countries where the OECD average wage reaches 38 — a different collection and a monthly figure, so it is its own field rather than an extension of that one.
How to read this figure
Mean monthly earnings of employees from the ILO, in PPP international dollars — gross, before tax, main job, full-time and part-time workers together, both sexes. This is the wage field that reaches beyond the OECD: 91 countries against the average wage’s 38. It is not the same figure as the OECD average salary and should not be multiplied by twelve to compare with it — different collection, different population, and the ILO series is a mean of whatever employment the national source covers.