This Korea severance pay calculator for foreigners estimates the Korean retirement allowance (toejikgeum) you are owed when you leave a job, using the statutory 30-days average-wage-per-year rule. Enter your total days of service, your last three months of wages, your annual bonus, and any unused annual-leave allowance, and the tool returns your average daily wage, your years of service, and your gross severance in both KRW and USD. Korean law gives foreign workers the same retirement allowance as locals, yet "severance pay korea foreigner how much" is one of the hardest questions to answer in plain English — this Korean retirement allowance calculator solves it precisely.
Use the calculate severance korea tool below, then read the eligibility rule, the formula, and a fully worked example.
Korean severance is built from your average daily wage, not your monthly salary directly. The calculator follows the statutory method:
The 30-days figure is what makes the result work out to roughly one month of pay per year worked. Bonus and unused leave are pro-rated into the three-month window because they accrue over the year — including them raises your average daily wage and therefore your severance.
Under the Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act, you are entitled to a retirement allowance if both are true:
This applies to foreign workers exactly as it does to Korean employees — your visa class (E-9, E-7, E-2, F-series and so on) does not change the entitlement. If your continuous service is under one year, there is no statutory severance, though some contracts voluntarily pay a pro-rated amount.
"30 days of average wage per year of service" is the heart of Korean severance. Your average wage (pyeonggyun-imgeum) is total wages over the last three months divided by the days in that period — a daily figure. Multiply by 30 and you get roughly one month's pay; multiply that by your years of service and you have the allowance. Because it uses the final three months, a raise or a large recent bonus directly increases your severance, which is why timing your departure after a pay rise can matter.
Suppose you worked 3 years (1,095 days), your last three months of wages totalled 9,000,000 KRW (3,000,000/month) over 91 calendar days, with a 4,000,000 KRW annual bonus and no unused leave:
That is close to 3.3 months of base pay — slightly more than "one month per year" because the bonus lifted the average wage above the bare monthly salary.
The average-wage base includes your base salary plus fixed, regular allowances — items paid consistently such as position allowances, meal allowances paid in cash, and fixed bonuses. Pro-rated shares of your annual bonus and unused-leave allowance are added in. Truly one-off, discretionary, or reimbursement-type payments are generally excluded. Because different employers structure pay differently, your exact "wage" can be a point of negotiation; when in doubt, include regular cash allowances and exclude pure reimbursements.
Severance is taxed as retirement income, separately from your ordinary salary, and it benefits from a special retirement-income deduction that grows with your years of service. The practical effect is that long service lowers the effective tax rate on your severance — a 10-year payout is taxed far more gently than the same amount paid as ordinary salary. Your gross figure from this calculator is before that retirement-income tax; the net you receive will be a bit lower, but the favorable regime softens the bite.
Many Korean employers now run a retirement pension system (defined benefit, DB, or defined contribution, DC) instead of paying a lump sum directly. The entitlement is the same statutory floor, but with a DC plan your employer deposits at least one-twelfth of your annual wage into your retirement account each year, which you can roll into an IRP (Individual Retirement Pension) account on departure. If you are a foreigner leaving Korea, ask whether your severance sits in a DB/DC plan and how to receive or transfer it — the amount should still meet or exceed the 30-days-per-year formula.
Severance hinges on continuous service, so it matters what counts as a break. Ordinary leave — annual leave, sick leave, statutory maternity/parental leave — generally does not break continuity, and the period usually still counts toward your service length. A genuine resignation followed by a fresh hire can reset the clock, but employers cannot artificially "reset" your service (for example by forcing an annual re-signing of contracts) to dodge severance; labor authorities look at the substance of continuous employment, not the paperwork. Fixed-term and renewed contracts that run back-to-back are typically aggregated. If your service has been chopped into segments, get advice before assuming each piece is under a year.
The 15-hours-per-week threshold is the key gate for part-timers. If you average 15 or more hours a week across the qualifying period and complete a year, you are entitled to severance just like a full-timer, pro-rated to your hours through the average-wage calculation. Workers below 15 hours a week are excluded. Dispatched (agency) workers are generally owed severance by their employer of record (often the dispatch agency) once they meet the thresholds. Because these arrangements can be murky for foreigners, keep your own record of weekly hours and who actually employs you — it determines who must pay.
Statutory severance is generally due within 14 days of your departure, although you and the employer can agree in writing to extend the date. If an employer fails to pay, you can file a complaint with the Ministry of Employment and Labor (지방고용노동청); unpaid severance is treated like unpaid wages and is recoverable, with potential penalties and delay interest against the employer. Foreign workers have the same rights here as Korean employees and can use multilingual labor support lines. Keep your pay slips, contract, and the severance figure you calculated so any claim is well documented.
The Korea severance pay calculator for foreigners computes your average daily wage from your last 3 months of pay (plus a pro-rated share of annual bonus and unused leave allowance), then multiplies it by 30 days for each year of service. The formula is average daily wage x 30 x (total service days / 365), giving your gross retirement allowance in KRW and USD.
Under the Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act, a worker is entitled to a retirement allowance (severance) if they worked continuously for at least one year and average 15 or more hours per week. This applies to foreign workers on the same basis as Korean employees, regardless of visa type.
As a rule of thumb you receive roughly one month of average wage for each year of service. Precisely, it is your average daily wage (based on the last 3 months including bonus and unused-leave shares) times 30, times your years of service. The calculator on this page gives the exact figure for your inputs.
Korean severance equals 30 days of your average wage per year of continuous service. The average wage is your total wage over the final 3 months divided by the number of days in that period, which roughly equals one month of pay for each completed year.
Yes. A pro-rated share of your annual bonus (typically 3/12 of the yearly bonus, reflecting the 3-month averaging window) and a share of unused annual leave allowance are added to the last 3 months wage when computing the average daily wage, which raises your severance.
Yes, but favorably. Severance is taxed as retirement income, separately from ordinary income, with a special retirement-income deduction that grows with years of service. Long service therefore lowers the effective tax rate on your severance compared with regular salary.
Yes. The Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act applies equally to foreign employees who meet the one-year and 15-hours-per-week thresholds. Your visa type does not reduce the entitlement; the same 30-days-average-wage-per-year formula applies.
If your continuous service is under one year, you are generally not entitled to statutory severance, although some contracts or company policies may still provide a pro-rated amount. The statutory entitlement begins at one full year of continuous service.