Turn Durunuri support into a premium budget
A small employer needs to budget social insurance alongside a new employee’s wages.
Durunuri is a South Korean national program supporting part of eligible employee and employer National Pension and Employment Insurance contributions.
Assuming support from salary alone, or overlooking previously supported months, can leave a larger bill than expected.
This calculator reviews one ordinary employee using insurance-specific eligibility, gross regular notices and remaining support installments.
Employers can review their own net cost while employees check the separate burden relevant to payroll deductions.
It focuses on applications and support duration rather than a full hiring-profit analysis, and uses fixed monthly bases and notices within 2026.
Korea-specific 2026 planning tool; amounts are in KRW and defaults are fictional examples.
Assumed, verified-input and unknown states are distinct; agency approval and actual credits must be checked against official decisions and bills.
Eligibility thresholds and support caps are different
Business size and income
The legally assessed application headcount must be below 10.
Check pension standard monthly income and Employment Insurance remuneration separately against the strictly below KRW 2.7 million threshold.
The two insurance schemes do not necessarily use the same headcount or income base.
Property and annual income
The employee property tax base must be below KRW 600 million and annual comprehensive income below KRW 43 million.
Property market value is different from its tax base; verify whether the agency uses prior-year or second-prior-year income according to data availability.
For new support, pension checks first enrollment or workplace enrollment history in the year before application; Employment Insurance checks qualification acquisition during the year before application.
For existing support, examine the original application test and current lawful continuation rather than applying a fresh one-year exclusion to today’s already-supported enrollment.
Pension support also requires an eligible Korean-national employee; pension can be switched off where only Employment Insurance applies.
2026 monthly support caps by insurance and contribution payer| Insurance | Employee cap | Employer cap |
|---|
| National Pension | KRW 87,400 | KRW 87,400 |
| Employment Insurance | KRW 16,560 | KRW 21,160 |
The basic support is 80% of each eligible contribution, subject to the caps above.
The official KRW 2.3 million example reflects those caps: between KRW 2.3 million and strictly below KRW 2.7 million, higher premiums may not increase support.
Gather eligibility records and gross notices
Business and worker records
Check the prior-year average or relevant three-month counts, application-month count, and maternity or childcare leave exclusions.
Verify the business aggregation unit for a corporation or individual business and the public-institution exclusion.
The headcount field is not a direct copy of a Labor Standards Act regular-worker count.
Notices and support history
Gather employee and employer gross regular premiums before support, plus separate supported-month histories since 2018.
Prior support stops immediately before the first review month; the support start is the month recognized for the application or filing.
Keep a planned, unfiled application labeled assumed.
Entering a bill already reduced by Durunuri applies the subsidy twice.
Separate regular contributions from retroactive adjustments, arrears, other reductions or settlements.
For employer Employment Insurance, verify whether the eligible employment-stability and vocational-development contribution is included alongside unemployment insurance.
Monthly support and net-cost formulas
Calculate each of four contributions separately
Monthly support = min(floor(gross regular premium × 80% ÷ 10) × 10, applicable cap)
Own net burden = own gross regular premium − own support
Apply the formula to employee pension, employer pension, employee Employment Insurance and employer Employment Insurance separately.
For a KRW 12,349 notice, 80% is KRW 9,879.2; truncating amounts below KRW 10 gives KRW 9,870.
Sum monthly results rather than truncating a combined period total once.
Combined employee and employer support describes the overall premium reduction.
Only employer support reduces employer cost; do not subtract the employee share again.
After support ends, unchanged notices return to their full gross amounts in the premium budget.
Use the calculator step by step
- Choose a 2026 review start and duration, then label the evidence unknown, assumed or verified.
- Enter the employee property tax base and relevant annual comprehensive income; check ordinary-worker and public-institution status.
- For each insurance, enter legal headcount, reported income, new or continuing eligibility, support start and prior supported months.
- Enter gross regular employee and employer notices, then adjust each month for timely payment, a following bill and continued eligibility.
- Review remaining months and the separate net burdens; save TXT or open the printable review for the agency comparison.
If income or notices change during the period, split the review into separate constant-value periods.
Use unknown rather than inventing zero for missing income-year, eligibility or historical-support information.
Compare KRW 2.3 million and KRW 2.5 million examples
Both examples assume that all eligibility and monthly payment conditions are met.
For KRW 2.3 million, the 2026 pension example uses 4.75% per party, or KRW 109,250; Employment Insurance uses employee 0.9%, or KRW 20,700, and employer 1.15%, or KRW 26,450.
These are illustrative full-month notices, not an automatic insurance assessment from salary; replace them with actual gross notices where different.
Illustrative monthly support and net burden at KRW 2.3 million and KRW 2.5 million| Monthly comparison | KRW 2.3m example | KRW 2.5m example |
|---|
| Employee gross premiums | KRW 129,950 | KRW 141,250 |
| Employer gross premiums | KRW 135,700 | KRW 147,500 |
| Employee support | KRW 103,960 | KRW 103,960 |
| Employer support | KRW 108,560 | KRW 108,560 |
| Employee net burden | KRW 25,990 | KRW 37,290 |
| Employer net burden | KRW 27,140 | KRW 38,940 |
Read the three-month budget
Three supported months from October through December 2026 in the KRW 2.3 million example give KRW 637,560 combined support.
Employee net cost is KRW 77,970 and employer net cost KRW 81,420; with no earlier support, each scheme has 33 months remaining.
At KRW 2.5 million, support stays capped and monthly net costs rise to KRW 37,290 for the employee and KRW 38,940 for the employer.
36 supported months are not simply three calendar years
Track actual support months since 2018 separately for each insurance, up to 36.
Do not derive remaining support solely from time since hiring or assume that a new employer resets the count.
Different support histories can make pension and Employment Insurance end in different months.
When prior counts are 35 and 34
With 35 prior pension months and 34 prior Employment Insurance months, a three-month review supports pension only in installment 36 in the first month, and Employment Insurance in installments 35 and 36 in the first two months.
Both are exhausted in the last month.
An unknown month leaves actual consumption uncertain, so later installments, remaining counts and complete totals are withheld.
The calculator stops at December 2026.
Months after year-end are omitted and only the unused installment count is retained; rates, eligibility and budgets are not extended automatically into 2027.
Distinguish premium month from the later credit
The official guide describes support credited against the following bill after timely full payment of monthly premiums is confirmed.
The premium month identifies the covered contribution; the following-bill reference is not a promised payment date or statutory due date.
January 2027 alongside a December 2026 premium is a credit reference, not a calculation using 2027 contribution rates.
Support is zero before the recognized start.
Late or incomplete payment, suspension and no following bill also produce zero in this model; omitted-application remedies, late filings and retroactive adjustments need separate agency review.
If support is suspended through year-end after three consecutive months at 10 or more workers, mark all remaining affected months suspended according to agency guidance.
The calculator does not investigate statutory headcounts, filing deadlines or exceptions automatically.
Practical review scenarios
Hiring a first employee
Prepare gross employee and employer notices alongside wages and compare the application-period budget.
A planned application is not confirmed support.
Support approaching its limit
Compare histories to see whether pension ends first or both schemes end together.
Prepare the additional cash needed for payroll and operating expenses.
Payroll handover
Save evidence labels, start months and monthly states so another payroll officer can recheck them.
Names and resident-registration numbers are not required.
Interpretation tips and limits
- Unknown is different from zero: missing eligibility or support history withholds full totals; read any calculable subtotal separately.
- Suspended months retain the fixed gross-premium budget; if no actual bill exists, calculate a separate period using zero notices.
- Check coverage, income bases, headcounts and histories independently; do not mix an owner or representative director’s own insurance with employee support.
- Daily, construction, logging, artist, labor-provider and domestic-service special schemes, local-support overlap, health/accident premiums and taxes require separate review.
- Rules or available budgets may change before a notice’s application period ends; compare the saved source date and the next actual bill.
Frequently asked questions
Does a KRW 2.7 million salary qualify?
The remuneration or standard-income test is strictly below KRW 2.7 million, so exactly KRW 2.7 million fails; verify the agency base because gross wages, tax-exempt items and the reported income base can differ.
Does support stop above KRW 2.3 million?
KRW 2.3 million is the reference underlying the support caps, while eligibility requires less than KRW 2.7 million; within that interval the fixed caps can reduce the effective support percentage.
Does new enrollment mean a first-ever job?
For pension, verify first enrollment or no workplace enrollment during the year before the original application; for Employment Insurance, verify no qualification acquisition during that year, and distinguish original eligibility from lawful continuing support.
Does changing employer restart the 36 months?
No automatic reset is assumed: check cumulative support months since 2018 separately with the National Pension Service and Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service.
Can a missed application be backdated?
This calculator assigns zero support before the recognized support start; omitted applications, late qualification filings and exceptional adjustments require separate agency review and do not establish a retroactive payment.
What if payment was late or no following bill exists?
Timely full payment and credit against the following bill must be checked; these states receive zero in this ledger, while arrears relief and closure adjustments remain separate agency questions.
How does review needed differ from zero?
Review needed means information is insufficient, whereas zero means the entered conditions do not produce support; an unknown earlier month also withholds later installment and remaining-month calculations.
Are health and accident premiums also reduced by 80%?
This ordinary-employee Durunuri model covers National Pension and Employment Insurance only; health insurance, accident insurance, taxes, local support and special worker schemes need separate review.
Official sources and verification date
Current statutes and notices were checked directly through the National Law Information OPEN API on October 16, 2026.
The governing provisions are National Pension Act Article 100-3 and Decree Articles 73-2 and 73-3, and the Employment and Industrial Accident Insurance Premium Collection Act Article 21 and Decree Article 28.
MOHW Notice 2026-15 took effect on 2026-01-28; the amended Article 5(1) also covers existing beneficiaries and new applications from 2026-01-01.
Current MOEL Notice 2024-97 took effect on 2025-01-01; Articles 4–6 provide the income, property, one-year history, percentage, caps and 36-month rules.
Both notices state an application period for conditions and levels through 2027-12-31, subject to earlier change; this calculator covers 2026 only.
Recheck relevant-year income and property, new or continuing eligibility, actual support history, rounding, adjustments, exemptions, filing, timely payment and following bills when updating the calculator.
Contact the National Pension Service at 1355 or Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service at 1588-0075 with the saved review and actual notices.
Save the questions needed for an application
Enter separate notices and remaining support histories above, then adjust monthly conditions.
TXT and print reviews preserve inputs, evidence labels, installments, employee/employer support, net burdens and source links.
Use them for the business application and following-bill check, then use related calculators for broader labor-cost decisions.
Read the official enrollment and support application steps