This post covers the South Korean payroll system. Rates and limits are the 2026 figures as of the check date above.
The first deduction on a Korean pay slip is the “4 major insurances” (4대보험). There are four names, but what an employee actually pays from their salary is the National Pension, National Health Insurance, Long-Term Care Insurance and Employment Insurance. Industrial accident insurance is paid entirely by the employer. If you know the rates, you can calculate the deductions yourself and compare them with your pay slip. Below are the 2026 employee-side rates and the order of calculation.
2026 employee-side rates
| Item | Total rate | Employee share | Calculation base |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Pension | 9.5% | 4.75% | Standard monthly income (floor 410,000 won, cap 6,590,000 won) |
| Health insurance | 7.19% | 3.595% | Monthly remuneration (excluding non-taxable pay) |
| Long-term care insurance | 13.14% of the health insurance premium | Same as left | Employee’s health insurance premium |
| Employment insurance (unemployment benefit) | 1.8% | 0.9% | Monthly remuneration (excluding non-taxable pay) |
The National Pension rate rises by 0.5 percentage points a year from 2026 to 2033 until it reaches 13%, so the employee share also goes up by 0.25 percentage points each year. The 6,590,000 won cap on standard monthly income applies from July 2026 to June 2027; for the six months before that, the cap was 6,370,000 won. The statutory long-term care rate is 0.9448% of income, and it is billed as the health insurance premium multiplied by 13.14%, which is that rate divided by the 7.19% health insurance rate.
Order of calculation
- Subtract non-taxable allowances such as meal allowance from monthly pay. The non-taxable meal allowance limit is 200,000 won a month.
- Multiply the remainder (monthly remuneration) by 3.595% for health insurance and 0.9% for employment insurance.
- For the National Pension, clamp the same amount to the range of 410,000 to 6,590,000 won, then multiply by 4.75%.
- Multiply the health insurance premium from step 2 by 13.14% to get the long-term care premium.
- Round each item down below 10 won and add them up.
Examples by annual salary
These assume a non-taxable meal allowance of 200,000 won a month and monthly pay equal to annual salary divided by 12. They were calculated the same way as the Calcmoa salary calculator. Amounts are in Korean won (KRW).
| Annual salary | Monthly pay | National Pension | Health | Long-term care | Employment | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30,000,000 | 2,500,000 | 109,250 | 82,680 | 10,860 | 20,700 | 223,490 |
| 40,000,000 | 3,330,000 | 148,830 | 112,640 | 14,800 | 28,200 | 304,470 |
| 60,000,000 | 5,000,000 | 228,000 | 172,560 | 22,670 | 43,200 | 466,430 |
| 100,000,000 | 8,330,000 | 313,020 | 292,390 | 38,420 | 73,190 | 717,020 |
The 4 insurances as a share of monthly pay are 8.94% at a 30,000,000 won salary and 9.33% at 60,000,000 won, rising slightly with income, and then fall to 8.60% at 100,000,000 won. This is because once taxable monthly pay exceeds 6,590,000 won, the pension stops rising past 313,020 won. Health and employment insurance have no such low cap and keep rising in proportion to income.
Work it out yourself
This is a formula you can use to check against your pay slip. Paste it into your browser’s developer tools console and change only the number on the last line.
// 2026 employee-side 4 insurances (rounded down below 10 won)
const floor10 = (v) => Math.floor(v / 10) * 10;
function fourInsurance(monthlyPay, nonTaxable = 200000) {
const base = Math.max(monthlyPay - Math.min(nonTaxable, 200000), 0);
const pensionBase = Math.min(Math.max(base, 410000), 6590000);
const pension = floor10(pensionBase * 0.0475);
const health = floor10(base * 0.03595);
const longTermCare = floor10(health * 0.1314);
const employment = floor10(base * 0.009);
return { pension, health, longTermCare, employment, total: pension + health + longTermCare + employment };
}
fourInsurance(2500000);If your pay slip does not match
- Reference period: The National Pension usually uses a standard monthly income based on the previous year’s income for one year starting in July, while health insurance is paid on current pay and settled the following April. This can differ from the current month’s pay multiplied by the rates.
- Non-taxable scope: Besides the meal allowance, items such as a car-use allowance or childbirth and childcare allowances can lower monthly remuneration further.
- Rounding: Agencies round differently, so a difference of a few tens of won is possible.
- Employment insurance rate: The employee’s 0.9% is the unemployment benefit portion. The employment stability and vocational skills development portion is paid by the employer only.
To get monthly take-home pay after income tax as well, enter your salary and non-taxable amount in the Salary calculator (Korean page). If you are paid hourly, as in a part-time job, first work out monthly pay with the Hourly wage and weekly holiday allowance calculator (Korean page), then follow the steps above.