Hagwon monthly deductions: what comes out before your pay reaches your account
National pension, health insurance and income tax come out of every hagwon paycheck automatically. Employment insurance is the odd one: for E-2 teachers it's often optional, and few new hires realize that.
Park English2026-08-263 min read
Your contract lists a gross number. Your bank app shows a smaller one. That's normal: you just met the deductions every salaried worker in Korea meets, plus one that works differently for E-2 visa holders than most teachers assume.
The three that come out no matter what
"내년부터 국민연금 보험료율이 현행 9%에서 9.5%로 인상된다." That's the pension rate for 2026. The current setup splits it evenly, with the workplace and the employee each carrying half. Health insurance moved too: the health insurance rate for 2026 rose to 7.19%, decided by the health insurance policy committee. Because the employee covers half, you're actually paying 3.595% of your monthly pay out of your own pocket.
| Deduction | 2026 rate (total) | Your share | Where it's set |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Pension | 9.5% | ~4.75% | NPS (nps.or.kr) |
| Health Insurance | 7.19% | 3.595% | NHIS (nhis.or.kr) |
| Employment Insurance | 1.8% | 0.9% (if enrolled) | Ministry of Employment and Labor |
| Income Tax | sliding, by bracket | varies | NTS simplified withholding table |
Both pension and health insurance are mandatory for anyone on a work visa holding a hagwon job. Neither is negotiable, and both show up every single month without exception.
The one that surprises people: employment insurance
Korean employment insurance funds unemployment benefits, and the default assumption, including in a lot of teacher forum posts, is that everyone pays it and E-2 holders can never claim it. That's not quite right. Foreign workers are, in principle, excluded from the unemployment benefit portion of employment insurance, with permanent residents on F-2, F-5, or F-6 visas automatically enrolled, while other work-visa categories fall under a different rule.
For E-1 through E-10 (which includes E-2), enrollment in that unemployment portion is voluntary, not automatic. So the honest answer is: it depends on your hagwon. Some enroll you and deduct the 0.9%. Some don't put it on the payslip at all. If you're not sure whether you're enrolled, check the payslip line or ask the school's payroll contact. For E-2 holders, enrollment is arranged between you and the school, so raise it before your first payday if you want it.
Check your own payslip line by line before assuming either way. This is the deduction we'd tell you to actually look at, not skim past.
Income tax doesn't have one number
Income tax withholding follows the NTS's simplified withholding table (근로소득 간이세액표), which sets the amount by your monthly salary bracket and number of dependents, not a flat percentage. You can look up your exact withholding on Hometax, or ask your school's accountant to show you the table entry for your salary. In February, after the calendar year closes, your hagwon runs a year-end settlement. If you worked the full year with no other Korean income, you typically get some of it back; if you switched jobs mid-year, expect a smaller refund or a small balance owed.
What we don't know for you
The exact refund percentage you'll get back on your pension lump sum when you leave Korea depends on your nationality's tax treaty with Korea and changes case by case; ask the NPS international affairs desk directly rather than trust a round number from a blog. Same goes for whether your specific hagwon enrolls E-2 staff in employment insurance: there's no national default you can assume, so ask before your first payday, not after.