South Korea's non-regular workers reach 8.67 million as pay gap with regular staff widens

The data agency, Gukga Deiteo-cheo (국가데이터처), released its August 2026 survey of economically active population by work type on 21 October. It counted 8,671,000 non-regular workers, up 103,000 from a year earlier. Regular workers rose by only 10,000 to 13,855,000. Wage earners overall rose by 113,000 to 22,526,000, so non-regular workers accounted for most of the increase; Maeil Business put their share of the net rise at 91.2%. [ 3 , 5 , 6 ]

Non-regular workers were 38.5% of wage earners, up 0.3 percentage points. Yonhap and Seoul Economic Daily said this passed the previous high of 38.4% in August 2021, and that the number of non-regular workers has risen for a third straight year since 2024. Maeil Business said the agency described both the number and the share as the highest since the survey began in 2003. [ 5 , 6 , 9 ]

In June to August, regular workers earned an average of 4,052,000 won a month, up 156,000 won, and passed 4 million won for the first time. Non-regular workers earned 2,112,000 won, up 24,000 won. The gap grew from 1,808,000 won to 1,940,000 won, the largest since 2004. Non-regular pay was 52.1% of regular pay, down from 53.6%. Kyunghyang Shinmun said the gap has widened for nine years in a row from 2018. [ 4 , 5 , 9 ]

By age, non-regular workers aged 60 and over rose by 135,000 to 3,180,000 and were 36.7% of all non-regular workers. Those aged 29 and under fell by 64,000 to 1,482,000, and those in their 40s fell by 20,000. Kim Rak-hyeon (김락현), the agency's head of employment statistics, said the youth and 40s groups are shrinking in population and that the difficult youth job market also played some part. By industry, health and social welfare had 1,867,000 non-regular workers, up 112,000, followed by accommodation and food service, up 43,000. Temporary workers rose by 187,000 and part-time workers by 152,000, while atypical workers fell by 48,000. [ 4 , 5 , 8 ]

Kim said the lower pay growth for non-regular workers reflected the increase in part-time workers, who work shorter hours and earn less, and in workers aged 60 and over. Part-time workers were 50.5% of non-regular workers. Maeil Business noted that the statistic uses actual monthly pay, not pay matched for hours worked. Excluding part-time workers, non-regular workers earned 3,098,000 won, up 61,000 won, which left a gap of 954,000 won with regular workers. [ 5 , 6 , 8 , 9 ]

Newsis reported that 36.5% of non-regular workers were in the national pension scheme against 88.6% of regular workers. Health insurance coverage was 53.0% against 95.7%. Chosun Ilbo reported that 68.0% of non-regular workers had chosen their work type voluntarily, with satisfaction with working conditions the most common reason at 59.9%. [ 1 , 2 ]

A Korea Economic Daily editorial argued that the root cause of labour-market polarisation is large-company regular-worker unions defending their entrenched interests. Dong-A Ilbo quoted Yang Jun-seok (양준석), an economics professor at the Catholic University of Korea, who said older people must keep working after retirement but struggle to find stable jobs, and who called for reforming seniority-based pay and easing regulations. [ 10 , 13 ]