South Korean tax data highlight suspected worker misclassification as self-employment
Tax data obtained by lawmaker Kim Ju-young show that South Korea’s business-income withholding population rose by about 2 million between 2019 and 2024, with 90.1% of the increase in the “other self-employment” category. That category is suspected of including many employees classified as independent workers under so-called “3.3% contracts”; its population aged 60 and over more than doubled to 776,049. Kim called for targeted labor inspections to protect workers classified as business-income earners.