Salary Calculator

The Waglebagle Korean Salary Calculator is a free web tool that shows the gap between your "contract salary" and "what actually lands in your bank account" for employees working in Korea. Enter your annual salary and it automatically deducts the 2026-rate employee share of the four major social insurances (National Pension 4.5%, Health Insurance 3.545%, Long-Term Care 12.95% of health, Employment Insurance 0.9%), along with income tax (per the simplified tax table) and local income tax (10% of income tax), to instantly produce monthly take-home pay, annual take-home, total deductions, and effective take-home rate (%). Dependents, children under 20, and the non-taxable meal allowance (KRW 200,000/month) are all factored in automatically.

When should you use it? (1) Before negotiating a raise or accepting a new job — "if my pre-tax salary goes from KRW 55M to 60M, how much more actually arrives each month?" (2) When new hires receive their first contract and the actual paycheck looks smaller than expected. (3) When freelancers compare their 3.3% withholding to a salaried employee's take-home for the same headline number. (4) When preparing income evidence for housing-loan DSR ratios. (5) Before applying for housing subscription (chung-yak) or jeonse loans that require precise monthly net income. Korea's four-insurance and income-tax structure is complex enough that the rule of thumb "50M salary = roughly KRW 3.6M monthly" is rarely accurate.

Features and trivia. (1) Slide salary in KRW 1M increments for live simulation. (2) Same salary with different numbers of dependents produces meaningfully different income tax — auto-reflected. (3) Applying the non-taxable meal allowance (KRW 200,000/month, raised in January 2023) adds roughly KRW 30,000–50,000 to monthly take-home. (4) A bracket comparison table from KRW 20M to KRW 200M lets you visualize "my salary vs. a colleague's." (5) All math runs in your browser — no salary data is sent to any server.

FAQ — Q. Are bonuses included? A. If you enter total annual salary including bonus, deductions are calculated the same way. In practice, bonuses are often withheld separately and reconciled at year-end settlement. Q. Can it estimate my year-end tax refund? A. No — year-end settlement depends on medical, education, and donation deductions, which need a different tool. Q. Do these rates apply to foreign workers? A. Foreign employees can elect a flat 19% rate and have other special rules, so results may differ.