South Korea’s Nonregular Worker Share Hits Record 38.5%
South Korea’s nonregular workforce reached 8.67 million in August, while the wage gap with regular employees widened to a record 1.94 million won per month.
The share of nonregular workers among South Korea’s wage earners rose to a record 38.5 percent in August, highlighting a widening divide in pay and social insurance coverage across the labor market.
The number of nonregular workers reached 8.67 million, up from 8.56 million a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. Their share of all salaried employees increased from 38.2 percent in 2025 and was the highest recorded since the country adopted its current statistical method in 2003.
South Korea had 22.52 million wage workers in August. Regular employees numbered 13.85 million and represented 61.5 percent of the total. Women made up the larger portion of the nonregular workforce, at 4.96 million, compared with 3.7 million men.
The health and social welfare sector employed 21.5 percent of nonregular workers, the largest share among industries. Accommodation and food services followed at 9.9 percent. The distribution indicates that flexible and less secure employment remains particularly concentrated in labor-intensive service sectors.
The latest figures also showed a record earnings gap. Nonregular workers earned an average of 2.11 million won, or about $1,590, per month during the three months covered by the survey. That was an increase of 24,000 won from a year earlier. Regular workers earned an average of 4.05 million won, rising by 156,000 won. As a result, the monthly gap expanded by 132,000 won to 1.94 million won.
Working hours increased for both groups. Nonregular employees worked an average of 29.5 hours a week, up 1.3 hours from the previous year. The average for regular employees was 40.4 hours, compared with 36.5 hours a year earlier. Nonregular workers had an average length of service of three years, one month longer than in the preceding year.
Differences in access to major social insurance programs remained substantial. Only 36.5 percent of nonregular workers were enrolled in the national pension program, down 0.6 percentage point from a year earlier, while 53 percent had public health insurance coverage, down 0.2 percentage point. Among regular workers, the corresponding enrollment rates were 88.6 percent and 95.7 percent.
International comparisons are narrower because definitions differ. OECD data classified 27.5 percent of South Korean workers as temporary in 2025, compared with 5.1 percent in Britain and 14.2 percent in Japan. That measure counts employees with a predetermined job end date but excludes some groups included in South Korea’s broader nonregular-worker statistics, such as part-time and outsourced workers.