More than 800,000 workers generate serious extra income with side hustles

(123rf)

More than 800,000 employees in South Korea earn over 20 million won ($13,900) a year from sources other than their regular salaries, such as interest, dividends and rental income, according to government data.

In 2024, 804,951 employees fell into this category, making up about 4 percent of the country’s 19.88 million workplace insurance subscribers, according to data from the National Health Insurance Service, obtained by Rep. Kim Sun-min of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee.

These employees must pay an extra fee, called the “income-based premium,” on top of their regular salary-based health insurance contributions. This additional premium applies to extra income from investments, rental properties and other taxable earnings.

The system has been in place since 2011.

At first, only employees earning more than 72 million won per year in nonsalary income had to pay the extra fee.

But in 2018, the government lowered the threshold to 34 million won, and in 2022, it was further lowered to 20 million won.

To avoid placing too much of a burden on these workers, the extra fee is only applied to income exceeding the 20-million-won limit.

On average, these high-income employees pay about 152,000 won more per month in health insurance fees.

As the rules have tightened, the number of employees paying this extra fee has increased, from 194,738 in 2019 to 662,704 in 2023.