Top 0.1% Income Matches That of 6.27 Million Lowest Earners... 'Income Polarization' Persists

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Approximately 23,000 individuals in the top 0.1% income bracket, based on combined income from earned income and comprehensive income, earn as much as 6.27 million people in the bottom 26% income bracket.

On the 29th, Yang Kyung-sook, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, analyzed the 2018 tax year combined income percentile data requested from the National Tax Service. The total combined income of 23.25 million individual income earners was 824 trillion KRW, with an average annual income per person of 35.45 million KRW.

Among them, the total combined income of 23,246 individuals in the top 0.1% income bracket reached 34.2 trillion KRW, with an average combined income per person of 1.47132 billion KRW.

This is 61.0 times the average combined income of 23,470 individuals in the median income bracket, which was 24.11 million KRW per person. Based on combined income, the top 0.1% earn 64 times more than the median income earners.

Additionally, the total combined income of 23,246 individuals in the top 0.1% income bracket is comparable to the total income of 6.276674 million individuals in the 74% to 100% income bracket, which amounts to 35.3886 trillion KRW, indicating that income polarization remains a persistent trend.

Meanwhile, when dividing all combined income earners into 100 percentiles, the combined income of 232,469 individuals in the top 1% income bracket was 92.0786 trillion KRW, with an average income per person of 396.09 million KRW.

The income of the top 1%, 232,469 individuals, accounted for approximately 11.2% of the total income.

The top 10% income bracket earners, numbering 232,469, earned 17.65 trillion KRW, with an average income of 75.92 million KRW per person.

The average income of the top 34% income bracket, which is similar to the overall average income, was approximately 35.15 million KRW.

The average income of the bottom 30% (top 70%) income earners, totaling 232,469 individuals, was 14.22 million KRW, which is only about 2 million KRW higher than the 2018 annual minimum living cost of 12.04 million KRW for a single-person household.

Representative Yang stated, "With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) putting the national economy in crisis, income has decreased mainly among low-income groups, raising concerns that polarization will worsen further. We will initiate tax law revisions to stabilize income distribution so that the income redistribution function of taxation operates smoothly and to strengthen social solidarity."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.