Jan 18, 2024 5 min read Life in Korea

South Korea's Gross pay & Net pay (NAVER's wage calculator)

Search "연봉계산기" on naver.com or on NAVER's mobile app. It will be displayed automatically.

TL;DR

Gross pay vs Net Pay: what's the difference?

In France and other countries, when we talk about salary, we usually refer to the gross monthly or annual salary.

First, let's define what are gross pay and net pay:

Gross pay: refers to the total amount of money an employee earns before deductions such as taxes and benefits are subtracted. It includes the employee's salary or wages along with any additional income, like bonuses or overtime pay.

Net pay: amount an employee takes home after all deductions (such as taxes, insurance, and other withholdings) have been subtracted from their gross pay. Net pay is essentially the actual amount that an employee receives in their paycheck.

If you need more information, please feel free to Google these terms or have a look at these articles:

For many reasons, you would want to know how much the net value is (the amount of money that goes into your pocket! 💰).

How to find NAVER's wage calculator?

There are numerous wage calculators available online. My personal favorite is the one created by NAVER, the "Korean Google".

Here are the steps to find NAVER's wage calculator:

Visit NAVER's website (naver.com) or use the NAVER mobile app (iOS/Android).
Type "연봉계산기" (annual wage calculator) or "월급계산기" (monthly wage calculator) in the search engine and click on the first result. Today, I will calculate my annual net pay.

You should see something like this. That's it 🏁

NAVER has already taken us to the annual wage calculator, "연봉". If the only data you have is the hourly pay, you should click on "시급".

임금계산기 = wage calculator
시급 = hourly pay
연봉 = annual salary
퇴직금 = severance pay
실업급여 = unemployment benefits
월급 = monthly pay
비과세액 = tax-free amount
부양가족 수 (본인 포함) = number of dependents (including myself)
20세 이하 자녀 수 = number of children under the age of 20
초기화 = initialization
계산하기 = calculate

Decoding South Korea's gross salary

As mentioned earlier, gross salary is the total amount of money you earn before any deductions, like taxes or insurance, are taken out. It's your full income before any reductions.

Imagine you've recently signed a contract with a Korean company, and your annual gross salary is 45 million won. Here is what's included in it:

국민 연금 = national pension
건강보험 = health insurance
요양보험 = care insurance
고용보험 = unemployment insurance
근로 소득세 (간이세액) = tax on earned income (simplified tax amount)
지방소득세 = local income tax
년 예상 실수령액 = estimated/expected annual net pay
월 환산금액 = converted monthly amount

Cross-check information: Other Korean alternatives

Results provided by this type of simulator may not be 100% accurate as it lacks certain confidential information held only by you and your employers.

A reliable approach to get as close to reality as possible is to use other simulators for the same job. I will provide you with two alternatives to NAVER's wage calculator.