Korean Unemployment Benefit Calculator

The job-seeking benefit paid by Korean employment insurance after you leave a job, commonly called unemployment benefit, is structured as an amount per day paid for a set number of days. The daily amount comes from your average wage before leaving, and the number of days from your age and how long you were insured. Enter your average monthly wage over the last three months, the number of days in those months, your daily contracted hours, your insured years, your insured unit period and your age, and this calculator returns the daily benefit, the number of benefit days, the total you can expect and a monthly equivalent.

The most important thing this calculator shows is not the amount but the fact that the amount barely changes with salary. The daily benefit has a ceiling and a floor, and the gap between them is only ₩2,052. Below a monthly wage of about ₩3,339,093 everyone gets the floor; above about ₩3,442,833 everyone gets the ceiling; only those in the narrow band between are paid according to their own wage. The calculator flags whether the ceiling or floor applied right next to the result, to correct the expectation that a higher salary means a higher benefit.

Anyone about to leave a job who wants to know how much benefit to expect and how many months it will cover. Eligibility comes first: you need at least 180 paid days within the 18 months before leaving, and without that the amounts below mean nothing, which is why the calculator places the eligibility test above the figures. Leaving voluntarily or being dismissed for serious misconduct disqualifies you even if the day count is met; the calculator computes amounts only and does not judge the reason for leaving.

People approaching 50 use it to time their departure. Being 50 or over on the day you leave adds benefit days for the same insured period, so the total differs on either side of the birthday. The same goes for anyone near a boundary in the insured-period table: a few months' difference can move you into the next band, and the calculator shows what that is worth.

Eligibility is set by 고용보험법 제40조: within the base period of 18 months before leaving, the insured unit period must be at least 180 days. The daily amount is set by 제45조 and 제46조. First, total wages over the last three months are divided by the number of calendar days in those months to give the average daily wage, the base amount; the divisor is the actual day count, not 90, and the default of 91 is simply the most common combination. If the base is below the minimum base, daily contracted hours times the 2026 minimum wage of ₩10,320 an hour, it is raised to that; if it exceeds the ceiling of ₩113,500 in 시행령 제68조, it is cut to the ceiling.

The daily benefit is 60% of the base amount, but if that is below the minimum daily benefit, 80% of the minimum base, it is raised to the minimum (제46조제2항). So the maximum daily benefit is 60% of ₩113,500, or ₩68,100, and the floor for an eight-hour worker is ₩10,320 times eight hours times 80%, or ₩66,048. The number of benefit days comes from 별표 1 by age and insured period: 120 days for under a year insured, rising to 240 days for ten years or more under age 50 and 270 days for those aged 50 or over or with a disability. The expected total is the daily benefit times the days, and the monthly equivalent is the daily benefit times 30.

The calculator's default is a monthly wage of ₩3,000,000, 91 days in the three months, eight hours a day, under 50, three years insured and 200 insured days. With 200 days, above the 180 required, eligibility is met. The base amount is ₩9,000,000 divided by 91, or ₩98,901, and 60% of that is ₩59,341. But the minimum daily benefit for an eight-hour worker is ₩66,048, so the figure is lifted to the floor and the daily benefit is ₩66,048. Three years insured and under 50 gives 180 benefit days, so the expected total is ₩11,888,640, or ₩1,981,440 a month.

Change the wage to ₩8,000,000, the age to 50 or over and the insured period to twelve years, and the ceiling takes over. The base amount is ₩263,736 but is cut to the ₩113,500 ceiling, and 60% of that, ₩68,100, is the daily benefit. The wage rose from ₩3,000,000 to ₩8,000,000, yet the daily amount differs by only ₩2,052. What does change is the day count: at 50 or over with ten or more years insured it rises to 270 days, for a total of ₩18,387,000. It is the days, not the wage, that move the total.

The most common mistake is expecting 60% of your salary. Because of the ceiling, anyone earning more than about ₩3,442,833 a month gets ₩68,100 a day, and because of the floor, anyone earning less than about ₩3,339,093 gets ₩66,048 a day. The next is confusing the insured unit period with time employed. The unit period counts days for which pay was received, so a five-day-week worker accrues fewer than the calendar days, and unpaid leave drops out. That is where people who thought they had 180 days find they fall short.

Entering the average wage after tax is another error; the basis is gross pay, and bonuses and leave allowances paid within the three months count. Fixing the three-month day count at 90 introduces a small error too. And the calculator computes amounts only: leaving voluntarily or being dismissed for serious misconduct disqualifies you regardless of the numbers, and payment is made only for periods in which unemployment is formally recognised. The ceiling is set by decree and the floor follows the minimum wage, so they move at different speeds and the figures should be rechecked every year.