English teacher salary in South Korea per month: ₩2,500,000 median
The median advertised monthly salary for a full-time English teaching job in South Korea is ₩2,500,000, across the 466 full-time listings on LucyESL that state pay (of 586 live listings in total). Updated 2026-10-25.
Data updated · computed live from 586 listings · no figure below n=8
How much do English teachers in Korea make?
Across the 466 live full-time listings that state pay, the middle half of advertised salaries runs from ₩2,400,000 to ₩2,600,000 per month, with the median at ₩2,500,000. These are advertised minimums — where a listing gives a range, the guaranteed low end is counted, so actual offers can sit above these figures.
How do salaries differ by region?
| Region | Median | 25th pct | 75th pct | Listings stating pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seoul | ₩2,500,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,600,000 | 159 |
| Gyeonggi / Incheon | ₩2,500,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,600,000 | 169 |
| Busan | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,500,000 | 28 |
| Daegu | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,600,000 | 12 |
| Daejeon | ₩2,500,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,500,000 | 13 |
| Gwangju | ₩2,550,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,600,000 | 8 |
| Gangwon | ₩2,600,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,800,000 | 11 |
| Chungcheong | ₩2,500,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,700,000 | 12 |
| Jeolla | ₩2,500,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,500,000 | 9 |
| Gyeongsang | ₩2,500,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,600,000 | 20 |
Withheld for small samples (fewer than 8 full-time listings stating pay): Ulsan (6), Sejong (5), Jeju (6). A median of three adverts would be an anecdote, not a statistic.
Hagwon vs recruiter listings: how does advertised pay differ?
| Who posted the advert | Median | 25th pct | 75th pct | Listings stating pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy / language school | ₩2,500,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,600,000 | 188 |
| Recruiter / agency | ₩2,500,000 | ₩2,400,000 | ₩2,600,000 | 276 |
Employer type is what the advert (or the account, for directly-posted listings) says it is — how labeling and verification work here. Withheld for small samples: University (2).
What is the effective pay per teaching hour?
A monthly figure means little without the hours behind it. For the 70 live full-time listings that state both pay and weekly teaching hours, the effective rate — base salary divided by teaching hours, housing not counted — has a median of ≈₩22,550 per teaching hour (middle half ≈₩19,200–₩25,200).
For context, Korea's 2026 statutory minimum wage is ₩10,320/hour (₩2,156,880/month on the official 209-hour basis). None of the computable listings falls below that per teaching hour, on the advertised numbers.
How many listings disclose pay, hours and benefits?
Disclosure is the market's real problem — silence in an advert is not a "no", but it is a question you'll have to ask. Counted out of 586 live listings, except for the items that only exist in a salaried post — monthly salary, total on-site hours, severance (퇴직금), national pension, health insurance, flight / settlement support and paid vacation days — which are counted out of the 537 salaried ones, because an hourly rate or a contract engagement has none of them to declare:
| Stated in the listing | Yes | Silent | Of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly salary | 481 | 56 | 537 |
| Teaching hours per week | 80 | 506 | 586 |
| Total on-site hours | 364 | 173 | 537 |
| Severance (퇴직금) | 409 | 128 | 537 |
| National pension | 417 | 120 | 537 |
| Health insurance | 421 | 116 | 537 |
| Flight / settlement support | 365 | 172 | 537 |
| Paid vacation days | 368 | 169 | 537 |
| Split shift | 6 | 580 | 586 |
What each silence costs you, and what to ask before you sign: What Korean ESL job ads don’t tell you
Where those adverts are, and how many of them each region holds: Where Korea’s English-teaching jobs are
The same figures, kept month by month so a change can be dated: The monthly record
How common is provided housing?
Of the 537 salaried listings: 401 provide housing, 55 pay a housing allowance, 23 say there is neither, and 58 do not say. Housing is excluded from the effective-hourly math above, so compare it separately — a provided studio and an allowance are worth different amounts in different cities.
Methodology & sources
- Population: live listings on this board at the moment the page is served — published, moderation-approved, not expired. Sample rows are excluded. Every figure recomputes as listings change; the data date above is the most recent listings update.
- Provenance: most live listings are copied from public job boards and are marked “Copied listing” on the board. A teacher still applies on LucyESL: it prepares the application and gives one link to send the employer, with the original posting a click away. The listings are the employers'; the aggregate statistics on this page are computed by LucyESL.
- Salary basis: the advertised guaranteed minimum (the low end of any range), in KRW per month as advertised. Listings that don't state pay are counted in disclosure figures and excluded from salary math — never counted as zero.
- Which listings count: listings paying a monthly salary under an employment contract (근로계약) — 537 of 586 live listings, of which 481 state a figure. Hourly, per-class and revenue-share (비율제) engagements are excluded from every salary figure on this page. They have no monthly total to compare, a share of tuition depends on enrolment nobody can promise, and an employer's own estimate of what a share might be worth is not a guarantee and enters no statistic here.
- Which of those the medians use: the full-time ones — 466 of the 481 that state pay. A part-time or camp monthly figure covers a different amount of work, so averaging it in would blur the number a teacher is trying to compare. The disclosure table counts every salaried listing; the medians count this narrower set. That is why the two totals differ.
- Effective hourly: base salary ÷ (weekly teaching hours × 4.345), rounded to the nearest ₩100; housing and benefits excluded; camp/short-term roles excluded. Same formula as each listing's Quality Report.
- Small samples: no figure is published for a segment with fewer than 8 qualifying listings; withheld segments are named above.
- Statutory reference: 2026 minimum wage, set by Korea's Minimum Wage Commission (최저임금위원회) — ₩10,320/hour, ₩2,156,880/month at 209 hours. Comparisons to it here are descriptive, not legal findings about any employer.
- What this is not: not employer benchmarks, not offer data, not a survey. It is what the live adverts say, counted honestly. Machine-readable copy: salaries?format=json.
- Reuse: these aggregate statistics are published under CC BY 4.0. Quote them, chart them, cite them in an article — commercially or not — as long as you credit LucyESL and link back to this page. The underlying listings belong to whoever posted them; the licence covers the statistics computed here, not the adverts.
Suggested citation: LucyESL, “English teacher salaries in Korea”, advertised monthly pay across 466 full-time listings stating salary, 2026-10-25. https://lucyesl.com/salaries