It turned out that the average monthly income of minors age 18 or younger who are registered as representatives of business sites exceeds 3 million won.
According to an analysis by the office of Min Byung-deok of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Policy Committee, of the National Health Insurance Service's "workplace subscriber levies" data on the 25th, as of the end of Aug., 359 people (2.1%) out of 16,673 workplace subscribers age 18 or younger were registered as representatives of business sites.
The business site type with the most minor representatives was real estate leasing, with 302 people (84.1%), while lodging and food service and wholesale and retail and consumer goods repair each accounted for 3.0% (11 people).
The average monthly income of these minor business site representatives was 3,032,000 won, higher than the median earned income of 2.72 million won among wage earners tallied by the National Tax Service in 2023. There were also a total of 16 minor business site representatives who earned 10 million won or more per month.
The top earner was a 14-year-old real estate lessor in Gangnam District, Seoul, receiving 20,741,000 won per month, with an annual income of 250 million won.
Most of them are presumed to have become business site representatives through inheritance or gifts. Although not illegal, concerns have been raised that in this process, sham business site expenses may be created or income may be distributed among several people to evade the progressive tax rate through expedients.
Min said, "Can a 14-year-old minor properly run a business site as its representative?" and added, "Because this can only be seen as the hereditary transfer of wealth through expedients, institutional supplementation is necessary."