One in four South Korean employees earn more than 4 million won a month... ”The highest amount ever”

In the first half of this year, one in four Korean company employees was estimated to earn a monthly salary of more than 4 million won (about 440,000 yen). However, due to the impact of sluggish domestic demand, only a small proportion of those employed in the construction and wholesale/retail industries received a monthly salary of more than 4 million won (about 440,000 yen).
On the 8th, Statistics Korea released a report titled "Industry and Occupation Characteristics of Employed Persons in the Regional Employment Survey for the First Half of 2024 (April)," which included these findings.
As of April this year, among all employed persons, the breakdown by wage level of wage earners (22,139,000 people) was as follows:
The largest proportion of workers was those earning between 2 million and 3 million won (approximately 221,196 to 331,795 yen), at 32.1%.
10,000 won or more (25.9%), 3 million to 4 million won (21.9%), 1 million to 2 million won (approximately 110,600 yen to 221,196 yen) (10.7%), 1 million
The next highest was those earning less than 4 million won (9.4%). In particular, the percentage of high-income earners earning more than 4 million won increased by 1.9 percentage points (p) from the previous year, showing a large increase.
Looking at the number of employees by 232 industry sub-categories, the restaurant industry had the most with 1,666,000 employees, followed by non-residential welfare facility management (1,553,000 employees), crop
This is followed by the agricultural industry (1.375 million people). Compared to a year ago, the building construction industry (-79,000 people), employment and temporary staffing services (-42,000 people), and home appliance and information and communication equipment retailers (-42,000 people).
The number of employees in the real estate-related services industry and the building and industrial facility cleaning and pest control services industry also fell by 17,000 people due to the sluggish construction economy.
Looking at the sub-categories, the largest declines were in general construction, at 66,000 people, and retail trade (excluding automobiles), at 64,000 people.
Employment in domestic demand-related occupations was also sluggish.
The largest decline was in sales workers, who fell by 75,000. Simple laborers in construction and mining fell by 56,000, and sales workers fell by 29,000.
The increase in employment was seen in administrative and management-related staff (91,000 people), nursing and medical service workers (49,000 people), and food and beverage workers (49,000 people).
The largest group was service workers (42,000).