Korea Salary Guide for Foreign Workers: Floors, Deductions, and Offer Checks

You have an offer. The first question is not "is it generous?" It is "does the number clear the legal floor, and what will actually come out of it?"

This guide does not certify private-market salary ranges. It gives you the official 2026 floors and payroll math you can verify before you sign. For market benchmarking, compare live job postings and current salary surveys separately.

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Step 1: Check the Legal Floor

National Minimum Wage

The Minimum Wage Commission notice says the 2026 minimum wage is ₩10,320 per hour. For the common 209-hour monthly calculation, that is:

This is a floor, not a professional salary benchmark. If a full-time offer falls below this monthly amount, pause before signing and ask how the employer calculated the hours.

E-7 Salary Floors

Korea Immigration Service posted MOJ Notice 2025-406 for the 2026 E-7 wage requirements. The notice applies from February 1 to December 31, 2026.

These are visa floors. If an employer offers exactly the E-7 floor, the offer may still be valid for immigration but low for the role. Treat the floor as the first check, then benchmark separately.

E-2, E-9, H-1, and F Statuses

E-2 and E-9 offers still have to satisfy the national minimum wage. Their real value depends heavily on hours, housing, overtime, and whether allowances are separate from base pay.

For H-1 working holiday, the Working Holiday Info Center says H-1 holders may not work more than 1,300 hours per year. At the 2026 minimum wage, the arithmetic ceiling at that hourly rate is:

The same official H-1 guidance says language teaching requires E-2 status. Do not treat an H-1 offer for foreign-language teaching as ordinary part-time work without checking the visa issue.

If you are not applying under E-7, do not use the E-7 table as your legal floor. Check the rules for your own status, then benchmark the role separately.

Step 2: Read the Offer Wording

Korean offers often use one annual number. Before comparing it to anything, ask what is inside that number.

Ask these questions in writing:

• Is the annual salary gross before deductions?
• Is severance paid separately, or is it included in the stated annual package?
• Are meal, transport, housing, and phone allowances separate from base pay?
• Is bonus guaranteed, target-based, or discretionary?
• How many paid working hours does the salary cover?

If a promised amount is not in the employment contract, treat it as uncertain.

Step 3: Check Severance

EasyLaw explains that severance is normally at least 30 days of average wage for each year of continuous service. The system excludes workers with less than one year of continuous service or very low prescribed weekly hours, so the one-year mark matters.

The phrase to watch for is "severance included" (퇴직금 포함). If the employer says a one-year package includes severance, you can estimate the working-salary portion by dividing the package by 13/12:

That is why two offers with the same headline number can be different. "₩40,000,000 plus severance" is better than "₩40,000,000 including severance."

For the full legal framework, use the Korea Severance Pay Guide.

Step 4: Estimate Employee Deductions

The main employee-side payroll deductions in 2026 are:

NHIS lists the 2026 health-insurance contribution rate as 7.19%, split 50/50 between employer and employee. MOHW lists the 2026 long-term care rate as 13.14% of the health-insurance premium. NPS lists the workplace pension split as employer 4.75% and employee 4.75%. Employment Insurance lists unemployment-benefit premiums as worker 0.9% and employer 0.9%.

Workers' compensation is still part of the social-insurance system, but the premium-collection statute places the industrial-accident premium on the employer side. It should not appear as an employee deduction.

Step 5: Work the Offer Example

Assume a ₩40,000,000 annual salary paid in 12 equal monthly installments, with no overtime and no allowance adjustments.

Before income tax, that leaves about ₩3,009,421 per month. Income tax withholding, local income tax, dependents, meal allowance treatment, flat-rate election, and year-end settlement can all change the final net amount.

For line-by-line payroll reading, use the Korean Payslip Guide.

Step 6: Check Tax Flags

Local income tax is normally 10% of the national income-tax line. NTS states individual local income tax as 10% of the income-tax amount.

Some foreign workers elect the 19% national income-tax rate under Restriction of Special Taxation Act Article 18-2. NTS execution standards refer to foreign workers within 20 years from the first date they provided labor in Korea, and to workers who first begin providing labor in Korea by December 31, 2026. The election gives up ordinary non-taxable treatment, deductions, reductions, and credits.

This option is not automatically better. Test it against ordinary withholding before electing it. For the full tax picture, use the Korea Foreign Resident Tax Guide.

Step 7: Check Pension Refund Assumptions

Do not assume National Pension is refundable just because you are foreign. NPS says foreigners in Korea are generally subject to National Pension coverage like Korean nationals. It lists lump-sum refund eligibility through three broad paths:

• the home country grants Koreans a corresponding benefit;
• Korea and the home country have a social security agreement on lump-sum refunds;
• the insured period was under E-8, E-9, or H-2 status.

For the refund process, use the Korea Pension Refund Guide.

Step 8: Benchmark the Market Separately

The official figures above answer whether an offer clears the legal floor and what deductions are predictable. They do not prove that the offer is fair for your occupation.

For market benchmarking, compare:

• current job postings for your role and years of experience;
• recruiter salary guides for your industry;
• offers from employers of similar size;
• whether housing, meals, transport, bonus, and severance are separate or included.

When you compare two offers, build the same table for both:

If the offer is near the visa floor, ask why. Sometimes the answer is role level or working hours. Sometimes it is a weak offer. The official floor tells you when the number becomes legally impossible; market research tells you whether it is worth accepting.

@misc{seoulstart-korea-salary-foreign-workers,
  author = {{Seoulstart Editorial Team}},
  title = {{Korea Salary Guide for Foreign Workers: Floors, Deductions, and Offer Checks (2026)}},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {Seoulstart},
  url = {https://seoulstart.com/guides/korea-salary-foreign-workers},
  note = {Last updated June 6, 2026}
}