"My Salary Is Just Health Insurance Premium"... 4,804 People with Monthly Income Over 50 Million Won Beyond Salary

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Byeon Seon-jin] It has been revealed that more than 3,700 ultra-high-income employees earn over 104.5 million KRW per month based on the health insurance premiums they pay monthly.

According to the National Health Insurance Corporation on the 21st, as of November this year, there were 3,738 health insurance workplace subscribers who paid the maximum monthly health insurance premium of 3,653,550 KRW (employee's share) based on their salary. This accounts for 0.019% of the total 19,624,000 workplace subscribers excluding dependents.

The health insurance premium (monthly wage insurance premium) imposed on employees' salaries has a set maximum limit, which tends to increase annually due to rising wages. The maximum limit, which was 6,193,140 KRW in 2018, rose to 7,307,100 KRW this year. However, since workplace subscribers and their companies each pay half of the premium, the actual premium paid by employees this year is 3,653,550 KRW. When the maximum premium is converted to monthly salary by applying the health insurance premium rate (6.99%), it amounts to 104,536,481 KRW. The number of workplace subscribers paying the maximum health insurance premium on their salary increased from 2,516 in 2018 to 3,302 last year.

For income other than salary, such as interest, stock dividends, and real estate rental income, the health insurance premium (income monthly insurance premium) imposed on the combined taxable income also has a maximum limit of 3,653,550 KRW per month, just like the wage monthly insurance premium. When the maximum premium for income other than salary is converted to comprehensive income by applying the health insurance premium rate, it reaches 52,268,240 KRW per month. As of November, 4,804 ultra-high-income employees pay the maximum premium for income other than salary, accounting for 0.024% of all workplace subscribers paying health insurance premiums.

Originally, the income monthly insurance premium was based on the National Health Insurance Act (Articles 69, 71, etc.) and was imposed only when the combined taxable income other than salary exceeded 72 million KRW annually starting in 2011. Then, from July 2018, the health insurance premium system was reformed to focus on income, lowering the threshold to 'over 34 million KRW annually' in the first phase (July 2018 to August 2022), and further lowering it to 'over 20 million KRW annually' from September this year, strengthening the criteria for imposing the income monthly insurance premium. However, additional premiums are imposed only on the portion exceeding the annual income of 20 million KRW.

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