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Korea overtakes Japan in wage level, reversal from 2002

Collected: 2024.03.18

Distributed: 2024.03.19

Source: Go Direct

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[Courtesy of The Korea Enterprises Federation]

The Korea Enterprises Federation (KEF) revealed on Sunday that the average monthly wage for South Korean workers in 2022 was 3.99 million won ($3,000), surpassing Japan’s figure of 3.79 million won by 207,000 won. This is a substantial change from 20 years ago in 2002, when South Korea’s wages were merely 1.79 million won and accounted for only 46.7 percent of Japan’s 3.85 million won.

Breaking down the wage statistics by the size of enterprises in 2022, Korea outpaced Japan across the board. For large corporations, Korea’s average wage was 5.88 million won compared to Japan’s 4.43 million won while Korea recorded 3.39 million won against Japan’s 3.26 million won for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Wage increases in Korea varied across enterprise scales over a 20-year period from 2002 to 2022, with large corporations seeing a surge of 157.6 percent while SMEs recorded 111.4 percent. In contrast, Japan experienced a decrease of 6.8 percent in large corporations’ wages and a 7 percent increase in SME wages. Korea’s SME wage level stood at 57.7 percent versus large corporations in 2022, while Japan’s was at 73.7 percent. Korea’s wage disparity between large corporations and SMEs was narrower at 70.4 percent compared to Japan’s 64.2 percent in 2002. But the rapid increase in wages for large corporations in South Korea has led to a reversal in this gap over the two decades.

“This stems from the stagnation of wage levels in Japan over the past 20 years although the country has recently made efforts to increase wages. Unlike Japan, Korea’s high wage increase rates for large corporations are causing various social conflicts, including wage disparities,” the KEF said.

By Kim Hee-su and Minu Kim

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