Everything About Korean Severance Pay
Severance pay (toejikgeum) is a statutory benefit in Korea: employees with one or more years of continuous service receive at least 30 days of average wages per year of service when leaving (Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act, Article 8). Enter your start/end dates and last 3 months of pay, and this calculator instantly estimates your daily average wage and severance. Contract and part-time workers also qualify with 15+ weekly hours and one year of service.
The key figure is the daily average wage: total pay over the final 3 months (base plus allowances), plus 3/12 of the annual bonus and 3/12 of annual leave pay, divided by the actual days in that period (89-92). For example, at 3M KRW per month with no bonus, 9M ÷ 91 days ≈ 98,901 KRW per day.
Severance equals that daily wage × 30 days × (total days employed ÷ 365). Three years (1,095 days) at 3M KRW/month gives roughly 8.9M KRW. Days are counted from the start date to the last working day, so missing one full year by even a few days means no statutory severance.
Pro tip: if your final 3 months of pay are unusually low (e.g. unpaid leave), your average wage and severance shrink. The result here is before tax; retirement income tax is far lighter than regular income tax thanks to service-year and converted-salary deductions. Use the salary calculator for take-home pay at your next job and the salary rank tool to see where your pay stands.