Medical Science Graduates Earn 2,480,000 Won on Average per Month

According to a study, doctors and pharmacists, who are in the medical science profession, are paid the highest salaries.

On June 10, the Work Information Center under the Ministry of Labor announced the results of the study it conducted on the industrial and vocational employment structure for 2003. The subject of the study was 6,534,163 employees who are over 25 years old and graduated from two-year colleges.

According to the center, medical science majors are paid an average of 2,483,300 won a month, the highest, followed by social science majors (2,366,000 won), engineering majors (2,316,600 won) and natural science majors (2,057,800 won).

Among medical science graduates, dentists earn 4,887,000 won as opposed to 1,347,000 made by dental hygienists. The difference amounts to approximately 3,500,000 won. Herb doctors, doctors in general, pharmacists and veterinarians earn 4,366,000 won, 4,349,000 won, 2,729,000 won and 2,412,000 won, respectively.

The Work Information Center’s Trend Research Team Chief, Park Cheon-soo, said, “Some plastic surgeons make as much as 10 million won per month. But this sum appears to be an after-taxation one. The study included low-paid part-time doctors as well. So doctors’ average salaries have gone down.”

The ratio between those who hold managerial posts and all workers is the highest, with 6.06 percent among social science majors who studied economics and management or law. On the other end, the managerial ratio is the lowest in the field of medical science with 1.01 percent. The ratios in engineering, education, humanities and natural science are 4.69 percent, 3.11 percent, 3.06 percent and 2.61 percent, respectively.

Tae-Hun Hwang beetlez@donga.com