<Anchor> It
is a friendly economy time.
Today (1st), I will be with reporter Kwon Ae-ri.
KDI has published the results of research and analysis on our middle-class society. Before looking into this, I have a question today.
What is the middle class?
<Reporter>
In fact, there is no unified definition of 'middle class'.
People say that if you can live by helping others, you are in the middle class.
I don't think you can say it's necessarily wrong.
Still, when we say middle class, we usually think of it in terms of income.
Here is a standard put out by the OECD.
Median income, based on the person in the middle when people in Korea are lined up in income order.
The OECD's standard is that the middle class ranges from those who earn half as much as those who earn 50% more than that person.
Then, how much do you have to earn to be middle class in Korea? Statistics have a bit of a lag, so 2020 is the latest standard.
Individuals are in the middle class if their monthly income is between 1.25 million won and 3.75 million won.
For a family of four, if the combined monthly income of the family is between 2.5 million won and 7.5 million won, the middle class is middle class.
The important thing here is that this is not pre-tax income.
After taxes and health insurance premiums, the money actually coming into your hands should be between 2.5 million won and 7.5 million won per month for a family of four.
This includes interest income and monthly rent.
This includes money such as infant allowance and basic pension.
Anyway, if my family can afford this much money, I am middle class by OECD standards.
<Anchor>
That's right.
Then, based on this standard, what is the size of the middle class in Korea?
<Reporter>
It turned out to be quite thick.
KDI, a national research institute, analyzed the middle class in Korea from various angles, and it was still increasing.
61.1% of the total population.
The middle class has grown by more than 6 percentage points from 10 years ago.
The OECD average is.
And the relative economic power of the middle class has steadily improved.
If there are many rich people who stand out in our society.
For example, there are 1,000 people like Elon Musk with a fortune of 200 trillion.
Then the sum of all the money the middle class earns would feel relatively small.
However, in Korea, the relative economic power of the middle class is quite good.
You might be surprised here.
The share of middle-income income is similar to or slightly below that of Northern Europe.
It's better than the United States, France, Britain, and Japan, where there are many extremely rich people.
I think there are many people who have heard this far and think "I can't believe it".
I'm not saying that I'm not statistically right now.
Then why am I not confident when I say this? Looking at the survey results, the ladder is still open.
In particular, KDI's diagnosis is that hope that my children will be able to live better than me is disappearing.
There is a growing awareness that I can no longer climb the ladder no matter how hard I try and my child tries.
That perception and reality are not very different.
KDI researchers this time tracked how much people's incomes have actually changed in recent years.
1-year and 2-year increments.
As the line on the graph you see now goes to the right, which is more recent, it tends to go down.
This means that real people's incomes are changing less and less.
It means that you can see less of him climbing the ladder.
<Anchor>
In the end, hope is now disappearing.
I guess this is the key.
Is there any way to change this situation?
<Reporter>
KDI's diagnosis this time was that, in the end, more people can have hope when they can earn money steadily.
In fact, the reason why the middle class has grown thick over the past 10 years has been a large proportion of cash-like support from the central and local governments, such as the basic pension, infant allowance, and Youth Tomorrow Filling Deduction.
But to be honest, not many people think that they can become rich by collecting this kind of money.
There is also a point of disappointment that the ladder is disappearing due to the sharp increase in real estate until last year or the widening gap in educational opportunities for children depending on class.
In the long run, in the end, there is no job loss at home, you can continue to work both ways, and these houses actually enrich the middle class.
Simple cash support alone cannot give hope that our house is blooming. For example, the government's efforts should be focused on structural improvement, such as creating an environment in which people can work even when they are old and work together freely.
[Lee Young-wook/KDI Director of Finance and Social Policy Research Department: By strengthening work-family balance support for female workers raising children who have employment barriers...
In particular, the problem of care gap for school-age children is serious, and I think that policy support should provide quality services even in the qualitative part to actually help women with school-age children balance work and family.]