🇰🇷 South Korea·OECD Pensions at a Glance · 2025

Will your pension be enough in South Korea?

Type your salary. See what a full career in the pension system pays you back the month you stop working.

I earn ₩ a year before tax in South Korea.

The OECD average wage in South Korea was ₩55,002,302 in 2024, the salary shown. Wages have grown since, so a salary from today places you slightly higher on this scale than you really are.

Share of your take-home pay your pension replaces

38.9%

Your pension is a floor, not a plan.

Well under half of your take-home pay comes back. A pension at this level protects you from poverty more than it protects your lifestyle. The OECD average at your pay level is 63.2%.

After a full career, the pension system in South Korea would replace 38.9% of your take-home pay from age 65. Before tax, that is about ₩1,530,897 a month, against ₩4,583,525 today.

The gap in money

From payslip to pension.

Before tax, the pension replaces 33.4% of your pay. After tax it replaces 38.9%, because pensioners in South Korea pay less tax and fewer social contributions than workers. Both figures are in today's money.

Today

₩4,583,525

per month, before tax

Your salary before tax.

Your pension

₩1,530,897

33.4% of your pay, before tax

Paid from age 65, in today's money.

The gap

₩3,052,628

per month, before tax

What your own savings would have to pay to keep your full income.

What you save yourself will decide how you live after work. Covering ₩3,052,628 a month yourself takes about ₩915,788,328 of savings by age 65, at a 4% withdrawal rate. Most people need less than their full salary once work costs and pension contributions stop, but this is the size of the job.

In today's money: the OECD models pensions relative to earnings at retirement, which rise with average wages. A 4% withdrawal rate means saving 25 times the yearly gap.

What your pay changes

Earn more, get back a much smaller share.

The OECD models three pay levels in South Korea. At 0.5× the average wage the pension replaces 55.4% of take-home pay; at the average, 38.9%; at twice the average, 24.7%. A gap of 30.7 points: the system protects low earners far more than it rewards high ones.

Net replacement rates from OECD Table 4.4. Tap a level to use its salary.

38 OECD countries

Same pay, 38 pension systems.

Every OECD country, for someone earning 1× their own country's average wage, as you do. The pension system in South Korea ranks 35 of 38.

OECD avg 63.2%

🇳🇱Netherlands

96.0%

🇹🇷Türkiye

94.4%

🇵🇹Portugal

92.7%

🇬🇷Greece

88.5%

🇱🇺Luxembourg

87.7%

🇦🇹Austria

86.8%

🇪🇸Spain

86.3%

🇲🇽Mexico

79.6%

🇮🇹Italy

79.0%

🇭🇺Hungary

78.0%

🇩🇰Denmark

77.1%

🇸🇰Slovakia

76.3%

🇨🇴Colombia

73.1%

🇸🇮Slovenia

71.3%

🇫🇷France

70.0%

🇨🇷Costa Rica

69.5%

🇸🇪Sweden

66.3%

🇫🇮Finland

65.7%

🇨🇱Chile

61.3%

🇧🇪Belgium

61.1%

🇨🇿Czechia

55.9%

🇳🇴Norway

54.9%

🇮🇱Israel

54.4%

🇬🇧United Kingdom

54.2%

🇩🇪Germany

53.3%

🇮🇸Iceland

53.3%

🇦🇺Australia

53.0%

🇱🇻Latvia

52.2%

🇺🇸United States

51.3%

🇨🇭Switzerland

47.5%

🇨🇦Canada

45.1%

🇳🇿New Zealand

43.8%

🇯🇵Japan

42.4%

🇵🇱Poland

40.6%

🇰🇷South Korea

YOU

38.9%

🇪🇪Estonia

37.8%

🇮🇪Ireland

33.7%

🇱🇹Lithuania

28.2%

Net replacement rate OECD average (63.2%)

Men, mandatory schemes, OECD Pensions at a Glance 2025 Table 4.4, placed at your multiple of each country's average wage.

Worth knowing

Three numbers behind yours.

Your pension age

The normal pension age the OECD uses for someone who starts work at 22 today. The OECD average is 66.4.

OECD average earner

63.2%

Share of take-home pay replaced for an average earner across the 38 countries. In South Korea: 38.9%.

Best and worst

96.0% · 28.2%

Netherlands replaces 3.4 times the share Lithuania does, for the same average earner with the same full career.

Where does your salary rank in the world?

Compare your income with the rest of the world, adjusted for prices.

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See what it takes to cover ₩36,631,533 a year yourself

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Next moves

Four ways to act on this number.

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Financial independence

How much you need saved to stop depending on the pension.

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Compound interest

What a monthly amount grows to by your pension age.

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Frequently asked questions

For an average earner who starts work at 22 and works a full career, the mandatory pension system in South Korea replaces 38.9% of take-home pay and 33.4% of gross pay, according to OECD Pensions at a Glance 2025. That ranks 35 of the 38 OECD countries; the OECD average is 63.2%.

The OECD puts the average wage in South Korea at ₩55,002,302 a year (2024). A full career at that wage earns a pension of about ₩1,530,897 a month before tax in today's money, 33.4% of gross pay, paid from the normal pension age of 65.

At 0.5× the average wage the pension replaces 55.4% of take-home pay; at twice the average, 24.7%. That gap of 30.7 points means the system protects low earners far more than it rewards high ones.

For someone who starts work at 22 today, the OECD models the normal pension age in South Korea as 65, against an OECD average of 66.4. The replacement rates on this page assume retiring at that age.

The OECD figure of 38.9% for South Korea counts mandatory schemes only, including workplace schemes that cover nearly all employees. Anything you save yourself, in a personal pension or an ordinary investment account, comes on top of it, and it is the part you control.

It is your pension after tax and social contributions divided by your take-home pay before retirement. The OECD calculates it for a worker who starts at 22 and works a full career to the normal pension age. A rate of 38.9% means that for every 100 you take home while working, you keep about 39 as a pensioner.

OECD Pensions at a Glance 2025: net replacement rates from Table 4.4, gross from Table 4.1, voluntary schemes from Table 4.5, average wages from Table 7.5. The OECD models a worker who starts at 22 in 2024 and works a full career to the normal pension age under the rules legislated today, in mandatory schemes (including workplace schemes that cover nearly all employees). Between the three pay levels the OECD models, this page assumes the pension grows in a straight line with pay. Real careers with gaps, part-time years or time abroad produce lower pensions.

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