More than 4,000 Office Workers Earn '56 Million Won in Additional Income' Besides Salary

0.022% of All Workplace Subscribers
Additional Burden of 3.91 Million Won per Month as Side Income

It has been reported that more than 4,000 health insurance workplace subscribers earn additional income such as interest exceeding 56.83 million KRW per month, excluding their salary.

According to the "Insurance Premium Cap Data" submitted by the National Health Insurance Service to the office of National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee member Choi Hye-young on the 24th, as of January, there were 4,351 "ultra-high-income workers" earning more than 56.83 million KRW per month from additional income such as interest, dividends, and rental income, excluding their salary, based on the health insurance premiums (health insurance fees) they pay monthly. This accounts for approximately 0.022% of the total 19.594 million workplace subscribers as of the end of 2022.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

These individuals pay an additional insurance premium at the maximum cap amount (3,911,280 KRW) separately from the health insurance premium levied on their salary.

This is separate from the "monthly wage (calculated by dividing the total annual wage by the number of months worked) insurance premium" imposed on the salary that a worker receives from their company as compensation for labor.

It refers to the health insurance premium separately levied on the "comprehensive income," which includes interest income from high-value assets, dividend income from holding a large number of corporate stocks, and rental income from owning high-priced real estate.

The monthly income insurance premium has been imposed since 2011 based on the Health Insurance Act (Articles 69, 71, etc.) only when the comprehensive taxable income excluding salary exceeded 72 million KRW annually. Then, in July 2018, the imposition system was restructured in the first phase, lowering the income threshold to "exceeding 34 million KRW annually," and from September last year, in the second phase, it was significantly lowered to "exceeding 20 million KRW annually."

However, to prevent situations where individuals pay excessively high monthly income insurance premiums due to just a few thousand won exceeding the threshold, additional premiums are only imposed on the "excess amount over the annual income of 20 million KRW."

As a result, with the strengthening of the monthly income insurance premium imposition criteria last year, the number of workplace subscribers paying insurance premiums excluding salary reached 552,282 (about 2.81% of all workplace subscribers) as of the end of 2022, more than doubling from 246,920 in 2021.

They pay an additional health insurance premium of about 200,000 KRW per month on average.

Meanwhile, the 2023 monthly income health insurance premium cap is the same as the monthly wage cap standard (personal burden), which is 3,911,280 KRW.

Applying the health insurance premium rate (7.09% of this year's income) to the monthly income insurance premium cap corresponds to an annual comprehensive income of approximately 681.99 million KRW, which is equivalent to a monthly income of 56,832,500 KRW.

In other words, "ultra-high-income workers" earn more than 56 million KRW per month from financial income, rental income, business income, etc., excluding their salary.

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