Top 0.1 percent income bracket in Seoul recorded the highest, says NTS

The top 0.1 percent of workers in Seoul recorded an average annual earnings of 1.4 billion won, three times higher than those in the same income bracket living in Gangwon Province last year.

A total of 6,213 workers who belong to the top 0.1 percent in terms of earned income in Seoul earned 1.3 billion and 88.17 million won in total pay, the highest level recorded as of 2022 among the 17 cities and provinces according to a report on earned income by city and province sent by the National Tax Service to Democratic Party lawmaker Yang Kyung-sook, a member of the National Assembly Strategy and Finance Committee. Total pay is an amount left after non-taxable income items such as food costs are taken away from annual earned income.

Jeju ranked second with 216 workers in the corresponding bracket, earning an average of 1 billion and 6.05 million won, followed by Gyeonggi Province with an average of 949.52 million won (4,832). The top 0.1 percent or 463 workers in Gangwon Province turned out to have the lowest total pay of 462.68 million won, three times lower than the 1st ranking region of Seoul. The average total pay of the nation’s top 0.1 percent was 987.98 million won last year.

The income gap turned out to be the widest in Seoul across the nation. The top 20 percent of workers in Seoul earned 18 times more than the bottom 20 percent – 119.95 million won vs. 6.67 million won. The capital city was followed by Busan (15.5 times) and Gyeonggi Province (14.6 times). Sejong City had the narrowest income gap of 9.6 times. The income gap between the top one-fifth and the bottom one-fifth recorded 15.1 times at the national level.


Do-Hyong Kim dodo@donga.com