Why build a DC contribution arrears ledger?
Under a Korean defined contribution retirement pension, the employer deposits contributions into the member’s account and the member manages the assets.
The current account balance alone does not establish whether the employer fulfilled its contribution obligation: investment gains, losses and personal additions can change that balance.
This tool matches employer obligations for individual wage periods with allocated principal payments, then calculates late interest separately.
It uses South Korean rules for 2026 and keeps every amount in KRW.
Use it for these decisions
- Check missing annual employer contributions before retirement and request a payment breakdown.
- Reconcile multiple installments after retirement with the changing principal and interest rate.
- Help payroll staff compare wage statements, DC rules and account transactions before settling principal and interest.
Verify enrollment and retirement-benefit coverage
Act Article 4 provides exceptions for continuous service below one year and contractual working hours averaging below 15 per week over four weeks.
A short wage period in one row does not establish the worker’s full service duration or coverage.
DC conversion, transferred past service and special leave can also require separate wage assessment.
The calculator therefore asks for verified coverage instead of deciding eligibility from row dates.
Scope and documents
Use one person’s single DC account and employer obligations only.
The supported ledger starts on 2022-04-14 under verified earlier provisions with the same calculation rules; the reference date must be in 2026.
There are up to 12 contributions, 36 payments and 12 exclusion periods.
Prepare the DC rules, enrollment confirmation, wage/bonus/allowance records and transactions identifying principal versus interest.
DB underfunding, investment loss, personal additions and after-tax retirement payouts stay outside the obligations entered here.
Compare wages / 12 with the verified obligation
Act Article 20(1) requires employer contributions of at least 1/12 of the member’s annual wages.
Annual wages of KRW 36,000,000 give a minimum reference of KRW 3,000,000.
For a shorter assessment period, enter actual wages for that covered period.
Do not multiply service days or years again after wages have already been limited to that period.
First verify which bonuses and allowances legally belong to the wage total.
Annual or monthly rows
For an annual due date, enter the assessed annual wages and obligation together.
For monthly due dates, use non-overlapping monthly periods and only each month’s wages.
Repeating annual wages in every monthly row duplicates the minimum.
Split periods that cross calendar years and do not deduct the same payment twice.
For verified uneven installments, row-level wages / 12 is a reference; the same-year obligation total is compared with the annual minimum.
Annual minimum check and rounding
The minimum check compares same-year obligation total × 12 ≥ that year’s assessed wages using integers.
The displayed wages / 12 figure is a two-decimal reference, not an invented statutory rounding rule.
An annual total below the minimum withholds final reconciliation until omissions or special assessment rules are reviewed.
An excess obligation in another year cannot cover a deficient year.
Regular, extended and retirement deadlines
Act Article 20(3) requires regular contributions at least once each year.
Read the actual DC rules rather than assuming every account uses December 31.
If those rules permit an extension and a valid extension is verified, enter its actual date.
An unverified regular extension withholds interest even when principal can be reconciled separately.
Retirement also accelerates unpaid obligations
Act Article 20(5) requires unpaid contributions and interest within 14 days of the retirement event, with an agreed extension allowed for special circumstances.
Retirement + 14 calendar days is only a proposed date.
Verify the actual holiday-adjusted deadline or valid special-circumstance agreement before confirming it.
The effective due date is the earlier regular/validly extended deadline and retirement settlement deadline.
A retirement agreement moves the 10%/20% transition but does not automatically erase interest already accrued after a regular deadline.
Assign principal installments to actual payment dates
Identify employer principal in the account transactions and assign it to the corresponding contribution number.
If a single transfer covers several years, obtain the employer or provider’s allocation and split it into matching rows.
Employee additions, investment gains and paid late interest do not reduce employer principal here.
Treating every increase in account value as an employer payment can understate the arrears.
Include the payment date; reduce principal next day
Act Article 20(3) includes the payment date in late days.
A payment on the due date produces zero late interest; a payment the next day produces one late day.
An installment accrues interest on the old principal on that date and lowers the balance from the following day.
Multiple payments on the same date are combined.
Payments exceeding one obligation are shown separately and never automatically carried to another year, so interest and final totals are withheld until allocation is reconciled.
The 10% and 20% periods and daily formula
Korean DC late-interest periods and inclusive endpoint rules| Period | Annual rate |
|---|
| Day after due date through retirement settlement deadline; still-employed late periods | 10% |
| Day after retirement settlement deadline through payment or reference date | 20% |
| Duration of legally recognized exclusion grounds | Excluded 0% |
Principal × rate (10 or 20) × days / 36,500
Each obligation is divided at the day after a payment, the rate transition and exclusion boundaries.
Each segment uses principal × annual rate × actual calendar days / 365, and all segments are summed.
Using 365 even in a leap year is a reference convention; verify the provider’s actual 365/366-day method.
Integer principal and days are accumulated exactly, then total accrued interest is truncated below KRW 1 as a reference.
There is no earlier daily, segment, row or annual truncation.
Two-decimal rounded segment displays can therefore sum differently from the final truncated total.
Worked example: KRW 3 million owed, 1 million paid
Assume wages of KRW 36,000,000 for 2025-01-01 through 2025-12-31, an employer obligation of KRW 3,000,000 and a due date of 2025-12-31.
KRW 1,000,000 principal is paid on 2026-03-01, and retirement occurs on 2026-06-30.
The verified settlement deadline is 2026-07-14 and the reference date is 2026-10-13, with no exclusions or interest already paid.
The fictional verified example button loads these same records.
Fictional installment example: inclusive dates, days, principal, rates and two-decimal interest| Inclusive period | Days | Principal (KRW) | Rate | Interest (KRW) |
|---|
| 2026-01-01–03-01 | 60 | 3,000,000 | 10% | 49,315.07 |
| 2026-03-02–07-14 | 135 | 2,000,000 | 10% | 73,972.60 |
| 2026-07-15–10-13 | 91 | 2,000,000 | 20% | 99,726.03 |
The 10% portion is KRW 123,287.67 and the 20% portion is KRW 99,726.03.
Summing first and truncating below KRW 1 gives accrued interest of KRW 223,013.
Principal shortfall of KRW 2,000,000 plus remaining interest gives a review total of KRW 2,223,013.
Interest already paid is deducted separately, without subtracting it from principal again.
Step-by-step use and saved reconciliation
- Select the reference date and employment status, then verify enrollment, service and working-hour coverage.
- Record the wage period, actual wages, employer obligation and DC-rule deadline together.
Split cross-year or overlapping periods.
- Verify principal allocation and enter the contribution number, actual payment date and employer principal.
Check interest through the principal payment date.
- Separate retirement settlement from regular extensions, then verify no exclusion or enter legally recognized periods.
Leave unknown facts unverified.
- Read annual comparisons, overdue versus not-yet-overdue principal, detailed interest periods and excess-payment warnings.
Save TXT or print to reconcile verification states, assumptions and official sources with the employer.
A valid pending ledger can be saved even when its final total is withheld.
Pending is not zero, and the entered-record balance is not an established claim.
Saving creates a local browser download; it does not automatically submit a complaint or message to the employer.
An interest exclusion does not waive principal
Act Article 20(4) excludes interest while qualifying grounds such as natural disasters persist.
Decree Article 12 refers to Labor Standards Act Decree Article 18, which includes Wage Claim Guarantee Act grounds, legal restrictions on obtaining funds and appropriate court or Labor Relations Commission disputes over whether amounts are owed.
This tool does not determine recognition or duration.
Unknown evidence withholds interest totals, and employer principal remains outstanding even during verified exclusions.
Inclusive endpoints; overlaps count once
Both the exclusion start and end date are included, and overlapping periods are combined as a union.
For example, March 1–5 and March 4–8 cover eight days, not ten.
Use a single ledger only when the same grounds and periods apply to all contributions.
Review separate ledgers when recognition differs or only part of an obligation is disputed.
Interpretation and practical scenarios
Account check while employed
Account shortfall is the entered obligation minus allocated principal payments.
It can include obligations not yet due, so read overdue principal separately.
Still-employed accounts never create a 20% period here; they use the 10% period after verified regular deadlines.
Reconciliation after retirement
Sending retirement, actual settlement deadline and installment records together separates missing principal from remaining interest.
Paid interest above reference accrual is not automatically offset against principal.
Check whether it belongs to another period or reflects allocation and rounding differences.
This tool does not estimate final retirement assets, investment return, substitute wage payments, limitation periods, insolvency distributions or actual tax deductions.
Records before 2022-04-14, future rules and special wage assessments require separate review.
Exact integer accumulation supports large amounts and long periods, but it cannot turn unverified inputs into legally established facts.
Frequently asked questions
Is a DC contribution equal to one final monthly salary?
The general minimum is at least 1/12 of the member’s annual wages, which need not equal the final month’s pay or one month of average wages.
Verify wage items, bonuses, allowances, partial-year service and the actual DC assessment period before comparing the contribution.
Can unpaid contributions accrue interest while I am employed?
Late interest can accrue at 10% annually from the day after the verified regular or validly extended deadline.
The rate becomes 20% after the 14-day retirement settlement period or a valid agreed deadline; do not apply the general unpaid-wage 20% rate to every DC period.
When does an installment reduce the interest principal?
Act Article 20(3) includes the day the contribution is paid in the late period.
This calculator decreases principal from the following day, combines same-day payments and stops additional accrual after full principal payment.
Does extending retirement settlement erase earlier interest?
A valid retirement settlement extension moves the 10% to 20% boundary to the verified extended deadline.
It does not automatically erase 10% interest already accrued after a regular deadline; enter regular extensions under DC rules separately from retirement settlement agreements.
What if principal is fully paid but interest is missing?
A zero principal balance can coexist with interest accrued through the actual principal payment date.
Enter late interest already paid in its separate field; do not subtract it again from the principal-payment ledger.
Does an employer’s cash shortage make interest zero?
Cash shortage alone is not treated as an automatic statutory exemption.
Verify recognized grounds and their duration under Act Article 20(4), Decree Article 12 and Labor Standards Act Decree Article 18; unverified exclusions withhold interest totals.
Can I ignore an obligation whose regular deadline follows retirement?
Unpaid contributions at retirement must also be checked against the settlement duty in Act Article 20(5).
The effective due date is the earlier verified regular deadline and retirement settlement deadline, so a year-end schedule does not hide post-retirement arrears.
Is the saved ledger an established legal claim?
The TXT ledger helps reconcile wage, deadline, payment and exclusion documents; it does not determine an admitted debt or final claim.
The fixed 365-day denominator and truncation below KRW 1 after the full sum are reference conventions: verify provider day-count, leap-year and rounding methods, agreements and holiday deadlines before requesting settlement.
Official sources checked on 2026-10-13
The National Law Information OPEN API was called directly for the Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act, ID009883/MST284455, Articles 4, 19 and 20; its Decree, ID010035/MST284693, Articles 11 and 12; and Labor Standards Act Decree, ID003058/MST270551, Article 18.
The Act was promulgated on 2026-03-17 and the relevant article text is effective 2026-07-01.
The current search date 2026-09-18 concerns the separate commencement of Articles 43 and 44, not the contribution article.
The retirement-benefit Decree version is effective 2026-03-24 and the referenced labor Decree version is effective 2025-10-23.
Earlier Act Article 20 versions MST231473 (2022-04-14) and MST239311 (2022-07-12), and Decree Article 11 MST241795 (2022-04-14), were compared and contain the same relevant wording.
The Ministry’s supplementary guide is dated 2026-09-15.
On updates, recheck Act Article 20, Decree Articles 11/12, the referenced Article 18, actual DC rules, agreements, exclusion recognition, account allocation, holiday deadlines, 365/366-day methods and rounding.
Save the ledger and request employer reconciliation
If the result shows a shortfall, first check for missing payments and wage periods.
Ask the employer to distinguish principal and late-interest contributions, and request evidence for unverified deadlines or exclusion grounds.
Sending wages, obligations, deadlines and payments for the same reference date helps resolve differences caused by account balance or allocation methods.
Use related tools separately for unpaid cash wages or DC versus DB comparisons.
Return to inputs and ledger