An image related to New Year’s bonuses. [Photo source = Yonhap News], ‘It was found that each office worker received an average bonus of about 10 million KRW. Particularly, the top 0.1% received more than 600 million KRW as a ‘bonus,’ highlighting the polarization in bonuses.’,
On the 26th, according to data from the National Tax Service received by Park Seong-hoon, a member of the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance Committee, a total of 9,878,416 workers reported bonuses for the fiscal year 2023.
They received an average bonus of 10.69 million KRW.
The average bonus increased from 10.73 million KRW in 2021 to 11.13 million KRW in 2022, but decreased again last year.
The bonuses for workers in the top 0.1% were an average of 626.98 million KRW.
This amount is 144.1 times the median value (4.35 million KRW) when workers are listed in order of bonus amount received.
When examining the top 0.1% by region, workers in Seoul received the highest amount of 997.55 million KRW. Workers in the Gyeonggi region also exceeded 600 million KRW with an amount of 614.42 million KRW. This was followed by Busan (407.58 million KRW), Incheon (356.18 million KRW), and North Gyeongsang (341.88 million KRW).
On the other hand, Gangwon and Sejong had only 137.2 million KRW and 162.82 million KRW, respectively, remaining in the 100 million KRW range.
The average bonus for the top 1%, equivalent to 1 out of 100 people, was calculated to be 158.11 million KRW. The top 10% received an average of 54.69 million KRW. The top 20% received 19.57 million KRW, while the bottom 20% received 550,000 KRW.
Park Seong-hoon stated, “Despite the economic downturn and businesses struggling with poor performance, causing a sharp decline in bonuses for high-income salaried workers, polarization remains severe. It’s urgent to address polarization through labor and industrial structure reforms, such as improving the rigid labor market structure and treatment of temporary workers.”