Top 1 percent singers earn 3.4 billion won on average

The top one percent of singers earn an average of 3.4 billion won annually, which is more than 50 percent of the total income of singers.

According to the income of celebrities by category between 2014 and 2018, submitted by the National Tax Service to Rep. Yang Kyung-sook of the ruling Democratic Party, 6,372 singers who filed income tax in 2018, made a total of 409.57 billion won with an average of 64.28 million won. 63 people in the top one percent raked in 217.16 billion in total, which translates into 3.446 billion won per person on average, accounting for 53 percent of the total income of singers. It is 113 times higher than the average income per singer.

Some 4,855 singers filed 286.49 billion won in 2014, and the number of singers and the total income increased by 31.3 percent and 43 percent respectively. The highest income one percent of singers received 48.1 percent of the annual income in 2014.

In the acting category, which also includes comedians and voice actors and actresses, 18,072 people reported 653.18 billion won in 2018 averaging 361.4 million won. A total of 306.46 billion of it came from the top one percent, which is 1.725 billion won per person.

In the same year, 8,179 models made 86,629 billion won which averages 10.59 million won per person. The top one percent received 39.863 billion in total with 492.14 million per person.


Seong-Taek Jeong neone@donga.com