Korea social insurance

A Korean payslip lists them in this order, usually in Korean only: 국민연금 (national pension), 건강보험 (health insurance), 장기요양 (long-term care) and 고용보험 (employment insurance).

On a ₩3m salary they come to ₩291,520 — about 9.7% of your pay. Your employer pays ₩299,020 in the same month, which never appears on your slip.

Three of the four are split down the middle. Employment insurance is the exception: the unemployment portion is halved, but the job-security and training portion is paid by the employer alone. A fifth insurance — industrial accident — is entirely the employer’s.

Long-term care is the one that confuses people. It is a percentage of your health insurance premium, not of your salary. That is why it is often printed as part of the health insurance line.

Six things come out, not four. Income tax and local income tax come out as well.

This calculator does not work those out, because they depend on how many dependants you claim. Two people on the same salary can have different tax withheld. The employer looks the figure up in a National Tax Service table.

So subtracting this number from your salary does not give your take-home pay. Tax comes off too. On your slip you will find the four insurances and then two tax lines below them.

The tax side is what year-end settlement (연말정산) adjusts in February. Social insurance premiums are not refunded that way — they are premiums, not withholding.

Health insurance is compulsory. If you hold an alien registration card and work at a covered workplace, Article 109 of the National Health Insurance Act makes you a workplace subscriber. There is one narrow exemption: if you already have equivalent medical coverage under a foreign law, a foreign insurance policy or your employment contract, you or your employer can apply to be excluded.

The pension depends on your country. Article 126 of the National Pension Act enrols foreign workers automatically — unless your home country’s pension law does not cover Korean nationals. It is a reciprocity rule, so the answer is different for each nationality. Korea also has social security agreements with a number of countries that change how contributions are counted. Ask the National Pension Service which applies to you.

Getting your pension money back is narrower than people think. The lump-sum refund on leaving Korea does not apply to foreigners in general. The same article limits it to three cases: nationals of countries whose law would pay a Korean the equivalent lump sum, workers under the Act on Foreign Workers’ Employment, and industrial trainees. Outside those, contributions stay in the system until you claim a pension.

Employment insurance depends on your visa. Workers covered by the Act on Foreign Workers’ Employment are enrolled, but the unemployment-benefit chapters apply only if they apply for them. For everyone else the law is applied in whole or in part depending on visa status and permitted activity.

However much you earn, your pension contribution stops at ₩313,020 a month. The contribution base is capped at ₩6,590,000.

There is a floor too. Earn less than ₩410,000 and the pension is still charged as if you earned that.

Both figures change every July, not every January. The current pair applies from 2026년 7월 ~ 2027년 6월.

Health insurance has no such ceiling at these salary levels. So as your pay rises, the pension line stays put while the health line keeps growing.

Put in your taxable pay, not your contract figure. Korean salaries often include a tax-free meal allowance of ₩200,000. That part carries no contributions, so entering the full contract amount overstates everything.

The pension uses last year’s income. Your contribution base is fixed once and used for a year, then reset each July. A raise this year does not show up in the pension line until the following July — so this calculator, which uses your current salary, will differ there.

Over 65 and newly hired means no unemployment premium. If you were already at the same employer before turning 65 you keep paying. Only a fresh hire after 65 is exempt.

Long-term care will not match either if you compare it against your salary. Work it out from the health insurance line instead — it is a fixed fraction of that number, not of your pay.