First Employee Breakeven Calculator

First Employee Breakeven Calculator helps model payroll, labor cost, and small-business employment scenarios in English.

First employee hiring inputs

Calls the Korean first-employee breakeven module with employer social insurance, severance provision, Durunuri support, employment tax credit, and youth subsidy logic.

Total monthly labor cost

₩3,310,685

Employer insurance ₩277,352

Net monthly labor cost

₩1,585,685

Subsidy ₩1,725,000

Required revenue increase

₩1,585,685

7.9% growth needed

Expected revenue increase

₩3,600,000

Immediately profitable

Months to breakeven

1

Annual net profit +₩24,171,780

Severance reserve

₩233,333

8.33% monthly provision

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Korea first employee breakeven calculator guide

This English page translates the Korean first-employee breakeven calculator and calls calculateFirstEmployeeBreakeven. It preserves employer insurance, severance reserve, Durunuri support, employment tax credit, youth subsidy, and 12-month cash-flow simulation.

Employer labor burden

Hiring a first employee in Korea costs more than salary. The Korean calculation adds employer National Pension, Health Insurance, long-term care, employment insurance, industrial accident insurance, and severance reserve to the employee salary.

The 2026 employer rates reflected in the Korean article include National Pension 4.75%, Health Insurance 3.595%, long-term care at 13.14% of the health premium, employment insurance unemployment portion 0.9%, employment stability and vocational ability rate from 0.25% to 0.85% by company size, industrial accident insurance by industry, and severance reserve at 8.33%.

Support programs

Durunuri support is modeled for workplaces with fewer than 10 workers and monthly pay below KRW 2,700,000, supporting 80% of eligible National Pension and employment-insurance amounts for up to 36 months under the Korean assumptions.

The integrated employment tax credit is also reflected. The Korean content uses SME metropolitan credits around KRW 8,500,000, non-metropolitan credits around KRW 9,500,000, and youth additions around KRW 4,000,000, generally across a 3-year duration depending on conditions.

Youth subsidy and minimum wage

The youth job subsidy path in the Korean content targets ages 15 to 34 and can be modeled at KRW 600,000 per month for up to 12 months, or KRW 7,200,000 total, subject to employment-maintenance requirements such as 6 months.

The Korean page also flags minimum-wage risk using its 2026 monthly minimum wage assumption of KRW 2,156,880 and hourly assumption of KRW 10,320. The English calculator preserves the Korean module result rather than substituting a new generic threshold.

Breakeven interpretation

The output reports total monthly labor cost, subsidy, net monthly labor cost, required revenue increase, required growth rate, expected revenue increase, months to breakeven, and 12 monthly simulation rows. A hire can be profitable after subsidy but still negative if revenue growth is too slow.

Administrative duties also matter. The Korean article highlights four-insurance reporting within 14 days, written labor contracts, wage ledgers, payroll statements, and potential fines up to KRW 5,000,000 for missing required labor-contract documentation.