Korean Job Discussion Forums

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Seoul Apartment Costs 11 Years of Urban Salaries
Households, which earned an average of 3.42 million won per month in the third quarter, are required to save their whole wage for 11 years to buy a 32-pyong (105.6 square meters) apartment in Seoul, priced at 451 million won ($485,000), according to Real Estate Bank, an online real estate information provider.
By Lee Hyo-sik, Korea Times (December 22, 2006)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/200612/kt2006122217391511870.htm

Yes, "household" is used. Is this mostly the salary of one person, the husband? Consider the following:

Most Women Quit Work to Get Married
Chosun Ilbo (March 22, 2006)
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200603/200603220029.html

Focus on quality of jobs
Many women leave the workplace because of marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, and once they leave work, it is difficult for them to return.
EDITORIALS, JoongAng Daily (June 16, 2006)
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200606/16/200606162157137379900090109011.html

tzechuk · Joined: 20 Dec 2004

I should imagine that they do earn roughly that much, considering it is Gangnam we are talking about.

Also, they say it's average - I know of Koreans earning like 5-6m a month. My husband says that people who work in big chaebols earn that much.

Unposter · Joined: 04 Jun 2006

I have never seen the word "mean" (SP?) used in Korean economics. Mean is the point where 50% is over and 50% under. It is a much better statistic than the "average" where they lump everyone's salary together from Chaebol owners to the guy working at Lotteria and average it out; it tends to be skewed or weighted. My guess is if this is average, considering that all the truly wealthy people live in big cities like Seoul, average Urban income is higher than the mean but I really don't know.

Nonetheless, I would like to add a few things to this discussion:

1. There are plenty of people in Korea who earn more than Western English teachers in Korea.

2. While I think that Western English teacher salaries are reasonable, I think we are in general underpaid -- mostly because though we own the means of our own production we are not allowed to sell it; we need a Korean middle "man" to sell us.

If nothing else, our salaries have not been keeping up with inflation for many, many years.

3. I would like to thank Real Reality for the public service he has done on highlighting salary discrepency in Korea.

4. I think there is very little anyone here can do to get better salary parity other than to prove your value to your boss and have your boss care about it or do privates (which are very, very illegal and I am not endorsing them in any way -- I am just saying they are they only way to recieve your true value.)

Good luck to all!

lover.asian · Joined: 30 Jan 2006

sock · Joined: 07 Oct 2006

antoniothegreat · Joined: 28 Aug 2005 Location: Yangpyeong

mean- all parts added up and divided by the amount of parts

median- the middle of all the parts

mode- the most common of the parts

Professor Scrappy Doo, PhD
Chairdog of Dong
hyundai Apt Univerisity at bathroom

lover.asian · Joined: 30 Jan 2006

LARRY J. STEPHENS, Ph.D.
Professor of Mathematics
University of Nebrasku at Oriialin

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

Unposter · Joined: 04 Jun 2006

OK. I meant the median.

Carry on with your fun...

PimpofKorea · Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 5:21 am Post subject:

3.42 is actually crap money.... I can't see how people can stay in this country if they are not making at least 5 mil a month. How can you live with 2.2 a month...I can make more than that playing with myself back home...

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Ilsanman · Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Location: Bucheon, Korea

I didn't see if it specified if that wage is for Seoul or for the whole country.

Also, it specifies that the wage is per household, not per person.

Young unmarried kids living at home usualyl give their entire wage to their parents. Also, some women work and make reasonable money.

I agree, it's not great money. But it is dead average for what a Korean earns, last I heard.

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Unposter · Joined: 04 Jun 2006

My wife was telling me that she read on the internet that inorder to live in Seoul you needed atleast 130 million won for Cheonsae (Key Money) and 2.6 million per month in salary. She said the article claimed that was the average monthly expenditure for someone living in Seoul. So, I would infer, this would mean you had to earn more to have any savings.

Of course, English teachers usually are given housing and our spending habbits are usually different than Koreans, but it does give a good sense of what the economic needs of the average Korean are.

Ilsanman · Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Location: Bucheon, Korea

That's BS. What they 'need'. I bet a gas guzzling SM7 is worked into that budget.

Korean families could live on much less, but they refuse to. As if they have some God given right to live in a 전세 apartment, have a car, etc. Some of us can't do that, don't want to do that, or it's not economically feasable to do that.

Also, parenting is not cheap anywhere in the world, but Koreans take the cake. Hagwon fees and spoiling the kid rotten are hurtful to Koreans' bank balances.