Woohoo! I wonder how much these Korean actors and actresses pay for their taxes. Ordinary salaried workers pay about 3.3% for their income tax. And my husband said that more than 60% of Korean salaried workers earn less than 20 million won a year (and could only afford penny stocks for investments)! Here are the top 7 Korean drama stars and their income (per episode):
No. 7 Go Hyun Jung (or Go Hyeon Jeong) – 35 million won for her drama “Hit” which replaced “Jumong” last year
No. 6 Choi Ji Woo (last name pronounced as “chae”) – 40 million won for “Air City”
No. 5 Lee Jung Jae (or Lee Jeong Jae) – 45 million won for “Air City”
No. 4 Park Shin Yang – 50 million won for “War of Money”
No. 3 Song Seung Hun (or Song Seung Heon) – 70 million won for “East of Eden” (TBS June 2008)
No. 2 Kwon Sang Woo – 100 million won for “Bad Love”
No. 1 Bae Yong Joon (or Bae Yong Jun) – 200 million won for “The Legend”
Those are depressing numbers (about Korean salaried workers, not the stars). I have to say, it’s sometimes scary how the gap between high salary workers and low salary workers is growing.
the poor gets poorer while the rich get richer.
do they really even deserve that much? i know they work long hours but so do the rest of the cast & crew. there should be a way to cap how much celebs get paid per ep cause its scary they are rolling in a fortune & other people are struggling. also just cause the celebrities are famous, they don’t really guarantee a drama’s success in ratings, like Bad Love.
among the names on the lis, the investors of legend got their money back and i think that up to this time the drama is still earning. having byj is worth every penny that the investors invested. i read somewhere that byj is not paid on a per episode basis. he invested what his supposed salary in this drama and he’s already earning too. it was a big gamble on his part bec if the drama was not a hit he will not have even a single penny for the drama.