South Korea’s economy grows 3.7% in second quarter, but real household wage income falls 2.1%

South Korea’s economy expanded 3.7% in the second quarter, but household wage income moved in the opposite direction. After adjusting for inflation, average wage income per household fell by more than 2%.

An analysis of Bank of Korea national accounts and the National Data Office’s household trends survey found that real GDP rose 3.73% from a year earlier. By contrast, average monthly wage income for all households nationwide with at least one member declined 2.14% in real terms.

That produced a 5.87 percentage-point gap between GDP growth and real household wage-income growth. Since quarterly year-on-year comparisons became possible in 2020, only the first quarter of 2024 recorded a wider gap, at 7.60 percentage points.

The same pattern appeared in the first quarter, when the difference between economic growth and household wage income also ranked among the largest during the period. The divergence has therefore continued for two consecutive quarters, with headline economic growth failing to translate into higher real wage income for households.