저소득만 제자리 다른 계층은 소득올라…격차 커졌다<br /><br />The income of the bottom 20 percent of households in South Korea, ended its year-and-a-half long decline in the second quarter of this year.<br />However, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened as the remaining 80 percent of households' earnings went up.<br />Here's Seo Eunkyung with a breakdown of the digits.<br />According to Statistics Korea on Thursday, the average monthly household income for the second quarter was about 3,890 U.S dollars, up 3-point-8 percent on year.<br />But not every citizen enjoyed the increase.<br />While the income of the bottom 20 percent of households stayed the same on year, the other 80 percent of households saw their income increase by between 3-point-2 percent and 6 percent.<br />The increase in the number of unemployed households in the bottom 20% was seen as one of the main reasons why it didn't see an increase.<br />Only 29-point-8 percent of households in the bottom 20% contained people in employment, down from 32-point-6 percent in the same period last year.<br />Wage income for the bottom 20 percent of households fell by around 15 percent on-year, but income from the self-employed increased by almost 16 percent over the same period.<br />The income gap between Korea's wealthiest and poorest citizens widened to its biggest margin since 2003, with the top 20 percent of earners taking home an average of 5-point-3 times the income of the bottom 20 percent.<br />Meanwhile, the Bank of Korea reported on Thursday that household debt rose by 4-point-3 percent on-year to reach a record high 1,289 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter.<br />Seo Eunkyung, Arirang News.<br />
