Korea's National Pension income cap is ₩6,590,000 from July 2026

This guide is for employees in Korea, including foreign staff, and for HR and payroll teams. It explains the standard monthly income (기준소득월액) used to calculate National Pension (국민연금) contributions, the floor and cap that apply from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, and the contribution rates for 2026 and 2027.

What the standard monthly income is

National Pension contributions are the standard monthly income multiplied by the contribution rate. The standard monthly income is the monthly income reported for you, with amounts under ₩1,000 dropped. It must fall between a floor and a cap: if your reported income is below the floor, the floor is used; if it is above the cap, the cap is used (Enforcement Decree of the National Pension Act, Article 5).

For workplace subscribers, the amount is first set from the pay agreed when you join. After that, it is set once a year from your income at that workplace in the previous year (total income divided by days worked, times 30) and applied from July to the following June. Because it is set once a year, it may not match your current pay exactly.

Floor and cap by period

The Minister of Health and Welfare announces the floor and cap by March 31 each year after review by the National Pension Deliberation Committee (국민연금심의위원회), and they apply from July for one year. They move with the change in the 3-year average monthly income of all subscribers (the "A value"). For July 2026 the change was 3.4%, decided at the committee's first meeting of 2026 on January 9.

Contribution rates for 2026 and 2027

The rate was 9% from 1998 to 2025. Under the 2025 pension reform it rises by 0.5 percentage points a year: 9.5% in 2026 and 10.0% in 2027, reaching 13% from 2033. Workplace subscribers and their employers each pay half: 4.75% each in 2026 and 5.0% each in 2027. Regional, voluntary and voluntary continued subscribers pay the full rate themselves.

These figures are the rate multiplied by the floor or cap, before any rounding in billing. The floor and cap from July 2027 will be announced by March 31, 2027.

Who is affected

The new floor and cap change contributions only for people whose income is below ₩410,000 or above ₩6,370,000. The rate increase affects everyone. For example, if your standard monthly income is ₩6,500,000:

• January~June 2026: capped at ₩6,370,000, so the total is ₩605,150 (your share ₩302,575);
• July~December 2026: the full ₩6,500,000 counts, so the total is ₩617,500 (your share ₩308,750).

What HR and payroll teams should check

• Update the floor and cap in the payroll system before July pay is processed.
• List employees whose income is near or above the cap and tell them about the change in advance.
• Check that payslips show the correct National Pension deduction.
• The employer pays contributions for all workplace subscribers by the 10th of the following month. If the employer fails to pay, the employee can apply to the National Health Insurance Service to pay their own share.
• Workers aged 18 to 59 at a workplace covered by the scheme are workplace subscribers by law, with some exceptions (Article 8). An employer cannot simply keep such an employee as a regional subscriber, who would pay the full rate alone.

What employees can do

• Income changes during the year: if your actual income differs from your standard monthly income by at least the ratio announced by the Minister, your employer can apply to change it with your consent. The new amount applies from the following month until June (Enforcement Decree, Article 9).
• Higher contributions, higher pension: the basic pension is calculated from both the average income of all subscribers and your own average standard monthly income over your career, revalued to current values (Article 51). Paying on a higher income raises your part of the formula, but the scheme is not a simple "get back what you paid" account.
• Gaps in coverage: Korean nationals aged 18 to 59 who are neither workplace nor regional subscribers can join voluntarily (Article 10), and subscribers can later pay for certain unpaid periods, totaling less than 10 years (Article 92).
• Questions: the National Pension Service call center is 1355.

Foreign employees

Foreign employees at covered workplaces and foreign residents are covered in the same way, unless their home country's pension law does not apply to Koreans (Article 126(1)). A social security agreement between Korea and your country can change these rules (Article 127). A lump-sum refund on leaving Korea is available only to certain groups, such as nationals of countries that give Koreans a similar refund and workers hired under the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers (Article 126(5)). Under Article 126(6), added on October 20, 2026, foreign subscribers cannot make catch-up payments for missed periods unless their home country offers the same to Koreans or a presidential decree covers them.

Checklist

1. Payroll: apply ₩410,000 and ₩6,590,000 from July 2026.
2. Payroll: apply the 10.0% rate from January 2027.
3. Pay contributions by the 10th of the following month.
4. Tell staff above the old cap of ₩6,370,000 about higher deductions.
5. Check that every eligible employee is a workplace subscriber.
6. Foreign staff: check the nationality rules and any social security agreement.