By Yoon Ja-young
Foreigners working in Korea made on average 2.3 million won a month in 2012. While 74 percent of foreigners earned less than 2 million won, the average income of the top 1 percent was 36.3 million won.
The data from the National Tax Service was released by Rep. Lee In-young of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy.
Foreign workers in Korea made on average 27.2 million won a year in 2012, which is 68 percent of the average annual wage of Koreans at 39.8 million won.
The analysis is based on the data of 474,289 foreigners who filed their income to the tax agency in 2012.
According to data by the Ministry of Justice, there were 1.5 million foreigners residing in Korea in 2012.
Among them, around 791,000 were estimated to have jobs.
"Most of those included in the National Tax Service data are those working in the country by due process of law. When including those working here illegally, the average wage is likely to be smaller," the lawmaker said.
The data showed that 74 percent of the foreign workers made less than 2 million won a month. Those earning less than 1 million won accounted for 19 percent of the total.
It also showed severe polarization in the income among foreigners. Those in the top 1 percent of the income bracket made on average 436 million won in 2012, or 36.3 million won a month. That is 49 times more than the average 8.8 million won annual wage of the bottom 1 percent.
Those in the top 1 percent took 16 percent of total wages earned by all foreigners, while the top 1 percent of Koreans took 6.4 percent of total wages earned.
"Today's economic development was achieved by the sacrifice of many workers. We cannot deny that foreign workers have played a huge role in Korea's economic progress during the past 20 years," the lawmaker said.
He demanded that the government should compile exact statistics regarding foreign workers in Korea.