South Korean doctors earn ₩285.18 million a year, latest government data show
South Korea has published its latest official healthcare workforce survey, providing a new government benchmark for physician remuneration and working conditions across the country's healthcare system.
Full-time physicians working in South Korean healthcare institutions earned average annual remuneration of ₩285.18 million, according to the latest official physician compensation data published by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
South Korea's latest government data provide a new benchmark for physician compensation, revealing substantial differences in average remuneration according to the type of healthcare institution in which doctors work.
Full-time physicians working in healthcare institutions received average annual remuneration of ₩285.18 million, equivalent to approximately ₩23.77 million per month when divided across 12 months.
The figures come from the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Second Healthcare Workforce Conditions Survey, published on 29 September 2026.
The underlying remuneration data relate to 2023, making them the latest official government figures rather than a measure of earnings during 2026.
Key findings
Average annual physician remuneration: ₩285.18 million
Approximate monthly equivalent: ₩23.77 million
Hospitals: ₩354.27 million
Clinics: ₩325.99 million
General hospitals: ₩251.45 million
Tertiary general hospitals: ₩199.76 million
Doctors working at least 40 hours per week were included
Interns and residents were excluded
Remuneration was based on salary information used for National Health Insurance contributions
The remuneration figures relate to 2023, with the official survey results published in September 2026
Average physician remuneration reaches ₩285.18 million
The Ministry reports average annual remuneration of ₩285.18 million among physicians working full-time in healthcare institutions.
That equates to approximately ₩23.77 million per month, although the Ministry's measure is annual remuneration rather than a monthly salary benchmark.
The survey includes doctors working at least 40 hours per week while excluding interns and residents, providing a benchmark focused on the established physician workforce.
Unlike compensation surveys based on doctors voluntarily reporting their earnings, the Ministry's remuneration measure uses the monthly remuneration base employed in calculating National Health Insurance contributions.
It should therefore be understood as recorded employment remuneration rather than a measure of every potential source of professional income available to a physician.
Physician remuneration varies substantially by institution
One of the most notable findings is the difference in physician remuneration between different types of healthcare institutions.
Physicians working in hospitals recorded the highest average annual remuneration at ₩354.27 million.
This was followed by:
Clinics: ₩325.99 million
General hospitals: ₩251.45 million
Tertiary general hospitals: ₩199.76 million
The difference between the highest and lowest institutional averages was substantial.
Average physician remuneration in hospitals was approximately ₩154.51 million higher than in tertiary general hospitals.
On this measure, the hospital average was approximately 77% higher than the tertiary-general-hospital average.
Why do institution-level differences matter?
The figures demonstrate why a single national average cannot describe the compensation of every South Korean physician.
The type of healthcare institution in which a doctor works is associated with substantially different average remuneration levels in the Ministry's data.
However, the figures should not be interpreted as demonstrating that the institution type itself causes the difference.
Factors such as physician characteristics, working arrangements, specialty mix, seniority and the structure of medical activity within different types of healthcare organisations may contribute to the variation.
The institution-level figures are therefore most useful as national compensation benchmarks rather than expected salaries for individual doctors.
What does the latest figure mean for South Korean physicians?
The ₩285.18 million annual average provides a new official benchmark for assessing physician remuneration in South Korea.
The underlying methodology also makes the findings particularly valuable for compensation research.
Rather than relying on advertised salaries or self-reported estimates, the remuneration measure is based on salary information used to calculate National Health Insurance contributions.
There are nevertheless important limitations.
The figures do not provide individual specialty benchmarks for areas such as cardiology, oncology or dermatology, and they should not be interpreted as capturing every possible source of physician professional income.
They also represent average rather than median remuneration, meaning the figures do not indicate what the physician at the midpoint of the earnings distribution received.
Latest release, but 2023 remuneration
The timing of the data is important when interpreting the findings.
The Ministry published its Second Healthcare Workforce Conditions Survey on 29 September 2026, but the physician remuneration figures relate to 2023.
The figures should therefore not be described as what South Korean physicians "earn in 2026".
Instead, they represent the latest official physician remuneration data available from the South Korean government as of 2026.
This distinction is particularly important when comparing physician compensation internationally, as official healthcare workforce datasets are often released considerably later than the period to which the earnings data relate.
About the data
South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare published the Second Healthcare Workforce Conditions Survey on 29 September 2026.
For physician remuneration, the survey uses the monthly remuneration base applied to National Health Insurance contributions.
The reported figures cover doctors working at least 40 hours per week in healthcare institutions and exclude interns and residents.
The remuneration figures relate to 2023.
Source
Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea. Second Healthcare Workforce Conditions Survey. Published 29 September 2026.https://www.mohw.go.kr/board.es?mid=a10503010100&bid=0027&tag=&act=view&list_no=1492074&cg_code=
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