By Kim Sung-jin
Staff Reporter
The more Koreans are educated, the more they are paid, a survey showed. Salaried workers with bachelor’s degrees earned an average of 1 million won more a month than those with high school diplomas, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said on Monday.

Its survey showed that the differential in monthly pay between householders with bachelor’s degree and those with only high school diplomas widened to 953,500 won in the first nine months of this year from 908,500 won last year.

The monthly pay of workers with bachelor’s degrees averaged at 3 million won during the nine months to September, while that of workers with the same length of service but with only high school diploma stood at 2.06 million won.

The average monthly wage earned by those who completed university grew 3.9 percent from 2.89 million won last year and those with high school diploma grew 3.4 percent from 1.99 million won.

Those with a master’s degree or doctorate earned 4 million won a month on average, nearly double the monthly income of those who held high school diploma as their highest education, reflecting that higher education results in higher lifetime income.

The average monthly income of those who earned a postgraduate degree inched up 1.5 percent from 3.94 million won in 2004.

However, monthly pay earned by those with poor academic background slowed for the first time in six years since 1999.

The monthly wage of those with

only elementary education dipped 2.9 percent to 1.12 million won this year from 1.15 million won last year and that of those who received secondary education shrank 3 percent to 1.37 million won from 1.41 million won.

It said the monthly income of those who received their formal schooling only in the elementary school grew 3.9 percent in 1999, 0.3 percent in 2000, 9.8 percent in 2001, 12 percent in 2002, 6.9 percent in 2003 and 4.8 percent last year.

Korean householders’ average monthly income in the January-September period amounted to 2.21 million won, up 2.1 percent of 2.17 million won a year earlier.

The survey also found that the household spending on children education also differed greatly according to the degree of parents’ education background.

The monthly expense on children education of households with parents with either master’s degree or doctorate averaged at 656,000 won, bachelor’s degree 374,600 won, high school diploma 282,500 won, secondary school education 19,0600 won and elementary school education 162,300 won.

sjkim@koreatimes.co.kr