Korea's civil service does not have one pay table. It has twelve, one per occupational group, published as annexes to the Public Officials Remuneration Regulation. We laid all twelve side by side — and the pattern that came out was not the one we expected.
1. What does it pay. Pick a table and a grade and step, and you get monthly base pay and estimated gross annual pay. The amounts are the Ministry of Personnel Management tables verbatim.
2. What gets missed. The table is not the payslip. The ₩160,000 meal allowance and 60% holiday bonus the calculator adds are no longer assumptions but statute — Regulation on Public Officials' Allowances, arts. 18 and 18-3(2). The pension contribution is 9% of standard monthly income (Pension Act art. 67(2)) and health insurance is half on the employee (Health Insurance Act art. 76(1)2). Still no net figure — the reason is in §deductions below.
3. What the tables reveal. The occupational tables are pinned to the general-service grades — a researcher's step 1 matches grade 5 to the last digit. And the teacher table stalls at step 8.
Why step 1 matches across occupations
| Table · occupational group | Step 1 | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Table 5 researcher · Table 6 advisor | ₩2,896,400 | grade 5, step 1 |
| Table 3-2 career specialist, group A | ₩2,896,400 | grade 5, step 1 |
| Table 5 assoc. researcher · 3-2 group B | ₩2,317,100 | grade 7, step 1 |
| Table 6 assistant advisor | ₩2,162,100 | grade 8, step 1 |
| Table 3 general service, grade 9 | ₩2,133,000 | — |
| Table 4 public safety · Table 8 postal | ₩2,133,000 | identical |
| Table 10 constable · Table 13 sergeant | ₩2,133,000 | identical |
| Table 11 school teacher | ₩2,041,500 | matches no grade |
Equal starting points do not mean equal paths. They separate at step 2 — general service goes to ₩2,147,600, public safety to ₩2,148,600, a police constable to ₩2,155,600 (our comparison). The constable pulls ahead by ₩8,000 straight away.
Teachers are the one group tied to nothing. Table 11 starts at ₩2,041,500, which is ₩91,500 below the six tables that share ₩2,133,000 and matches no cell in the general-service table. Against the 2026 minimum wage converted to a month of 209 hours (₩2,156,880), it sits ₩115,380 lower (our calculation). We looked at what that means for a starting official in the grade-9 first salary.
Why the teacher table stalls at step 8
Table 11 runs to step 40 — longer than the grade-9 column's 31. Subtracting every neighbouring pair showed one broken stair in the middle.
| Steps | Increase | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 → 8, average | ₩62,442 | steady |
| 8 → 9 | ₩17,000 | 27% of the preceding average |
| 9 → 10 | ₩21,100 | still thin |
| 13 → 14 | ₩116,200 | recovery |
| 32 → 33 | ₩146,400 | largest of the 39 |
This is the exact inverse of grade 9. On the general-service table, step 8 to 9 is the biggest jump of all (₩89,200); on the teacher table it is the smallest (₩17,000). The same interval is a peak on one table and a trough on the other.
Why the stair breaks there is not written anywhere in the table. The annex carries amounts only, so we could not verify the reason.
The full range, though, is far wider for teachers — ₩2,041,500 to ₩6,205,700 is 3.04x, against 1.75x for grade 9 over its 31 steps (our calculation). Teachers start later and travel further.
Who meets at the top of the tables
We ran the same exercise at the other end. Pulling the highest figure from each table produced matching numbers across unrelated annexes.
- A four-star general and a national university president both sit at ₩9,618,800. The figure in Table 13's notes and the one listed in Table 12's notes for the presidents of Kangwon, Kyungpook, Chonnam, Chungnam and others are identical to the won.
- A lieutenant general and the presidents of the colleges of education, Korea National Sport University and Mokpo Maritime University all sit at ₩9,447,300.
- Public safety grade 1 step 23 and senior police commissioner step 23 both end at ₩8,250,400.
- The highest figure on any step table is the constitutional researcher at step 16, ₩9,586,300 (Table 14). That table alone is printed in reverse, step 16 at the top down to step 1.
- General service grade 1 step 23 tops out at ₩8,001,400 — ₩249,000 below the public safety and police tables.
This is not a claim that a university president is treated like a general. The tables fix base pay only, and allowances differ completely by group. What we confirmed is narrow: the number in the base-pay cell is the same.
What only the military table shows
| Rank | Monthly pay | vs grade 9, step 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Sergeant (conscript) | ₩1,500,000 | 70.3% |
| Corporal | ₩1,200,000 | 56.3% |
| Private first class | ₩900,000 | 42.2% |
| Private | ₩750,000 | 35.2% |
| Staff sergeant, step 1 (career) | ₩2,133,000 | 100% (identical) |
Private to sergeant is exactly 2x (our calculation), and sergeant to career staff sergeant is another 1.42x — ₩1,500,000 to ₩2,133,000. Conscript pay has no steps: it is a flat figure per rank, so time served changes nothing within a rank.
Military academy cadets are listed separately at ₩1,215,000 in the first year and ₩1,650,000 in the fourth (Table 13 notes).
Does the table figure reach your account
Each annex sets one line: base pay. Actual pay adds allowances and subtracts contributions and tax.
Take-home = base pay + allowances − (civil-service pension, health insurance, income tax, etc.)
17 September 2026 — three “assumptions” are now statute. The earlier version called the meal allowance, holiday bonus and position allowance widely-used figures it had not been able to verify. All three are in the Regulation on Public Officials' Allowances [in force 2 January 2026, Presidential Decree 36015].
Art. 18 (meal allowance) Public officials shall be paid a meal allowance of ₩160,000 a month, within budget, on the pay date. Amended 2 January 2026.
Art. 18-3(2) (holiday bonus) The holiday bonus shall be 60 per cent of the monthly base pay as of the reference date.
Table 15 (position allowance) amended 2 January 2026 — grades 8 and 9 ₩175,000 … grade 1 ₩750,000
Opening them showed two things the calculator had glossed. The holiday bonus is keyed to “in service on Seollal and Chuseok”, so it is paid twice a year; and the ₩160,000 meal allowance is this year's amended figure, so older guidance may disagree. Article 18 also carries the words “within budget”.
Deductions — we have the rates, but not the base
Public Officials Pension Act art. 67(2) sets the contribution at 9 per cent of standard monthly income, capped at 160% of the all-officials average, and art. 67(1) proviso stops contributions once someone has paid for more than 36 years.
National Health Insurance Act art. 76(1)2 makes public officials workplace subscribers: half on the official, half on the State or local government. The proviso in the same paragraph is worth noting — for teachers at private schools it splits three ways: 50% employee, 30% employer, 20% the State.
We still state no take-home figure. Neither rate multiplies base pay — the contribution runs on standard monthly income (a year's total remuneration, allowances included, divided by twelve) and health insurance on the remuneration monthly amount. This calculator knows only base pay and a few allowances, so applying 9% here would come out too low. Not knowing the rate and not knowing the base are different problems — we filled the rate; the base is the “standard monthly income” line on your payslip.
For how the private-sector side works, our net salary calculator and net pay table use the four insurance agencies' own published rates.
Questions that remain
What is grade-9 step-1 pay in 2026?
₩2,133,000 a month, from Table 3. We dropped the year-on-year increase because we could not obtain the 2025 table.
Do teachers use the general-service table?
No — Table 11, steps 1 to 40 for kindergarten through high school, and Table 12, steps 1 to 33 for national university faculty.
Are there tables for police, firefighters and the military?
Yes — Table 10 and Table 13. Their step-1 and top figures appear above.
How does a step advance?
They are not in the pay tables — they are in the body of the Public Officials Remuneration Regulation, opened on 18 September 2026.
| Item | Provision | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Advancement cycle | art. 13(1) | One year between steps (only constitutional researchers differ — 1 year 9 months for steps 1–14, 2 years for 14–16) |
| Effective date | art. 13(3) | Steps advance on the first day of the month |
| Initial step | art. 8(2) | Set by Table 15. Where service periods overlap, only the more favourable one counts |
| Part-time service | art. 8(2) | Credited pro rata to hours — but service of one year or less counts in full |
“A step a year” is the rule, but it stops — art. 14 (restriction on advancement).
- Anyone under disciplinary action, relieved of duty, or on leave does not advance during that period (leave for a service-related illness or injury excepted).
- After the discipline is served: 18 months for demotion or suspension, 12 months for pay reduction, 6 months for reprimand.
- Drink-driving (including refusing a test), sexual violence, sexual harassment, buying sex and passive administration each add six months to those — a reprimand becomes a full year.
- A bottom-grade performance rating costs six months from the next scheduled advancement.
And art. 13(4): advancement resumes the day after the restriction ends, but may not exceed the step the person would have reached without it. The lost time is not made up.
— Public Officials Remuneration Regulation (in force 1 August 2026), arts. 8(2), 13 and 14(1), checked 18 September 2026.
Why do two people on the same step take home different amounts?
Because the allowances differ. Position allowance varies by grade; overtime, family and special-duty allowances vary by post and circumstance.
Sources
- Ministry of Personnel Management — agency source — Public Officials Remuneration Regulation, Table 3 (general service, grades 1–9). Source for the general-service figures throughout. Amounts are the regulation's own monthly figures in won. Ministry of Personnel Management, civil service pay
- Ministry of Personnel Management — agency source — the same regulation's Tables 3-2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14. Source for the step-1 matching, the highest figures, conscript pay and the fixed presidential rates.
- Minimum Wage Council — agency source — ₩10,320 an hour for 2026 and the 209-hour monthly conversion of ₩2,156,880, used for the teacher comparison. The same table already carries 2027 at ₩10,700 an hour and ₩2,236,300 a month (noticed 5 August 2026) — the grade-9 piece redoes the comparison against that figure. Checked 16 September 2026. Minimum Wage Council, current minimum wage — ⚠️ the
about/mainStatus.doaddress we had linked no longer opens. - Our own calculation — the step-1 matching, the per-step increments (30 intervals on grade 9, 39 on the teacher table), the 3.04x and 1.75x ranges, the conscript ratios and the gaps of ₩91,500, ₩115,380 and ₩249,000 are ours, derived from the tables.
- National Law Information Center — statutory text (checked 17 September 2026) — Regulation on Public Officials' Allowances, art. 18 (meal allowance), art. 18-3 (holiday bonus), art. 18-6 (position allowance) and table 15 [in force 2 January 2026, Presidential Decree 36015]. Source for ₩160,000 a month, 60% of monthly base pay, and ₩175,000–₩750,000 by grade.
- National Law Information Center — statutory text — Public Officials Pension Act, art. 67 (contributions). Source for 9% of standard monthly income, the 160% cap and the 36-year proviso.
- National Law Information Center — statutory text — National Health Insurance Act, art. 76 (bearing of premiums). Source for the State or local government bearing 50% for public officials and the 50/30/20 split for private-school teachers.
Where to check further
- Your own standard monthly income. The 9% rate and the 50% employer share are now settled from the statutes (see §deductions). What is missing is the base they multiply — standard monthly income is set from an individual's prior-year total and does not come out of a pay table. It is the “standard monthly income” line on your payslip, or ask the Government Employees Pension Service (1588-4321).
- Overtime, family and special-duty allowances. The same regulation sets each of them, but what we opened this time was arts. 18, 18-3 and 18-6 and table 15 — the rest is for a later pass.
- Step progression, credited experience, and local government tables. All sit outside the pay tables, and this article follows the national remuneration regulation — the national and local regulations are both on the National Law Information Center.
As of July 2026. Every won figure is copied from the Ministry of Personnel Management's own annexes; the matching, gaps, ratios and increments are our arithmetic. Allowances and deductions are excluded — for an actual figure, check the payslip. For the grade-9 starting salary see the grade-9 first salary, for a private-sector comparison the net pay table, for hourly work the part-time pay calculator, and for life after service retirement preparation by age.
