How much can a Korean staffing office legally take?
This calculator is based on Korean rules for 2026 (with the 2027 minimum wage available) and is not legal advice.
If you go to a dawn labor market expecting a KRW 150,000 daily wage and leave with KRW 135,000, where did the other KRW 15,000 go?
Most Korean staffing offices and caregiver placement agencies are paid job placement businesses registered with a city, county or district office, and the fees they may charge are capped by a Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) notice.
In practice, a 10% cut from daily wages, membership fees plus per-job fees, and payment before any job starts are often mixed together.
Without knowing the caps, workers can overpay tens or hundreds of thousands of won a month without noticing.
The calculator helps construction day laborers, caregivers, housekeepers and their families check whether the fees or membership dues they paid exceed the Domestic Paid Job Placement Fee Notice.
Enter the agreed wage, the amount paid, and whether you signed a written fee agreement or a proxy consent form to see the legal cap, the possible excess per contract, month and year, your net receipt, the effective fee rate and the review points.
Use the result to decide whether to request a refund, change offices, or choose between membership, per-placement and free public placement services.
Legal fee caps at a glance
Employment Security Act Article 19(3) bars registered paid job placement businesses from taking money other than the fees set and announced by the Minister of Employment and Labor.
Those fees are set by MOEL Notice 2017-22, in force from 2017-07-01 to the present.
Placement fee caps for jobseekers, employers and membership schemes with the legal basis| Charged to | Cap | Condition and basis |
|---|
| Jobseeker (worker) | 1% of the base wage | Prior written contract required; otherwise KRW 0 (Notice I.2 proviso and (b)) |
| Employer · construction day labor | 10% of the base wage | Notice I.2(a) |
| Employer · all other jobs | 30% of the base wage | Includes caregiving and housekeeping, Notice I.2(a) |
| Membership monthly fee for day workers | KRW 86,275 (2026) | Minimum wage × 209 hours × 4%, no extra placement fees (Notice I.3) |
Fees may only be collected after the employment contract is concluded (Notice I.1, Enforcement Decree Article 25(6)).
Only membership-based day-worker placement and placement of high-skilled professionals are exempt from this timing rule.
From 2017-07-01 to 2019-06-30 the jobseeker fee was temporarily 3%, but 1% has applied since 2019-07-01.
The 1% jobseeker fee and the written contract rule
No written contract means a KRW 0 jobseeker cap
The notice requires that any fee collected from a jobseeker be based on a written contract signed with that jobseeker in advance.
The calculator therefore treats the jobseeker cap as KRW 0 when no fee agreement was signed.
Even with a written contract, the cap is 1% of the wages agreed for the employment period if it is shorter than 3 months, or 1% of 3 months of wages if it is 3 months or longer.
For a one-day job at KRW 150,000, the jobseeker’s own fee can be no more than KRW 1,500.
Under Enforcement Rules Article 26, a paid placement business must keep fee agreements (Form 20) for two years.
For day-worker placement, however, job orders, job applications and fee agreements may be omitted, so many day workers never receive one.
A missing agreement does not help the office; it means there is no basis to charge the jobseeker a fee at all.
Construction 10%, caregiving 30% and the proxy consent form
The 10% cut is the employer’s fee
The familiar 10% of a daily wage is legally the cap on the fee the employer pays for construction day labor.
It is not a fee borne by the worker.
For caregivers, housekeepers and other jobs, the employer cap is 30%.
Proxy collection needs a signed form
When the jobseeker is a caregiver, housekeeper or construction day laborer, the worker may receive from the employer and pass on the fee agreed in a consent form, within the employer cap (Notice I.2(a)3).
The form is the proxy collection consent for construction, caregiving and housekeeping placement fees.
The calculator first allocates what you paid to your own fee (1%) and the rest to accepted proxy collection.
Accepted proxy collection is the smaller of the consent amount and the employer cap minus any fee the employer already paid directly.
Other occupations may not use proxy collection, so the accepted amount is KRW 0 even with a form.
If the employer did not add the proxy amount on top of wages and it came out of your pay, the full wage payment rule in Labor Standards Act Article 43 should also be reviewed.
Membership fee cap of 4%: KRW 86,275 in 2026 and KRW 89,452 in 2027
An office that places housekeepers, caregivers and other day workers on a membership basis may charge membership fees instead of placement fees.
The cap is 4% of the hourly minimum wage announced under the Minimum Wage Act, converted to a month at 209 hours, and it may be charged to the employer and the jobseeker separately.
A day worker who joined as a member may not be charged any placement fee on top of the monthly fee.
Minimum wage by year and the monthly membership fee cap| Year | Hourly | Monthly (209 hours) | Membership cap 4% |
|---|
| 2026 (Notice 2025-47) | KRW 10,320 | KRW 2,156,880 | KRW 86,275 |
| 2027 (Notice 2026-60) | KRW 10,700 | KRW 2,236,300 | KRW 89,452 |
The 2026 figure of KRW 86,275.2 is truncated to KRW 86,275.
Membership schemes are exempt from the timing rule, so collecting the monthly fee in advance is not flagged.
Monthly fees above the cap and any per-job fees charged to members are all counted as possible excess.
The fee base: the 3-month rule and room and board
Shorter or longer than 3 months
Below 3 months, all wages agreed for the employment period form the base.
From 3 months on, even a 6-month or 1-year contract only counts the wages agreed for the first 3 months.
Daily wages use daily wage × work days; monthly wages use monthly wage × min(months, 3).
What counts as wages, and lodging
The wage is the wage defined in Labor Standards Act Article 2(1)5 (Notice I.4).
If the employer provides room and board, up to KRW 50,000 per month of its value may be added to the wage.
For live-in caregiving, any monthly room-and-board value you enter is added only up to KRW 50,000.
The notice does not say how to prorate the lodging addition for daily contracts shorter than 3 months.
The calculator therefore rounds the base work days up to 30-day months, which makes the cap larger.
For example, 30 days adds one month (KRW 50,000) and 31 days adds two months (KRW 100,000); this is a conservative assumption so that the excess is not overstated.
Formulas and how to read the result
- Fee base = base wage + lodging addition (KRW 50,000 per month × months).
- Jobseeker cap = floor(fee base × 1%) with a written contract, otherwise KRW 0.
- Employer cap = floor(fee base × 10%) for construction day labor, 30% otherwise.
- Accepted proxy = min(consent amount, employer cap − employer direct payment) for eligible jobs with a signed form, otherwise KRW 0.
- Possible excess = amount paid − accepted jobseeker fee − accepted proxy, never below zero.
- Per month = excess × same contracts per year ÷ 12; per year = excess × contracts per year.
For membership, monthly over = max(0, monthly fee − cap), and period excess = monthly over × months + extra fees charged to the member.
The effective fee rate divides what you paid by total contract wages, so it can be compared directly with the legal percentages.
Review points are a checklist based on the facts you entered and do not replace the judgment of the registering office or a court.
Examples: KRW 150,000 construction day labor, 30 days of caregiving, and membership
The amounts below are fictional examples that show the calculation, not local market rates.
The construction example assumes one-day contracts repeated 240 times a year (20 days a month).
Caps and excess when KRW 15,000 is taken from a KRW 150,000 construction daily wage under different paperwork| Paperwork | Allowed total | Excess per day | Per year |
|---|
| Written contract · no consent form | KRW 1,500 | KRW 13,500 | KRW 3,240,000 |
| Written contract · consent for KRW 13,500 | KRW 15,000 | KRW 0 | KRW 0 |
| No written contract · no consent form | KRW 0 | KRW 15,000 | KRW 3,600,000 |
In the first row the KRW 15,000 employer cap is still available, but without a consent form only the KRW 1,500 jobseeker cap is accepted; the monthly excess is KRW 270,000, the net receipt is KRW 135,000 and the effective fee rate is 10%.
A caregiver paid KRW 150,000 a day for 30 days who paid KRW 450,000 has a base of KRW 4,500,000, a jobseeker cap of KRW 45,000 and an employer cap of KRW 1,350,000.
With a consent amount of KRW 405,000, both KRW 45,000 and KRW 405,000 are accepted and the excess is KRW 0; with KRW 300,000 of monthly room and board, the KRW 50,000 addition raises the jobseeker cap to KRW 45,500.
A worker in another job on a KRW 2,500,000 monthly wage for 6 months who paid KRW 250,000 has a 3-month base of KRW 7,500,000 and a KRW 75,000 cap, so KRW 175,000 is excess.
A member who paid a KRW 100,000 monthly fee for 6 months in 2026 plus KRW 50,000 of extra fees has KRW 13,725 a month, KRW 82,350 in total, plus KRW 50,000, or KRW 132,350 of excess; under 2027 rules it is KRW 113,288.
Review checklist, fines and administrative sanctions
- You paid a fee before the employment contract was concluded (except membership).
- You paid your own fee without a written fee agreement.
- 10% or 30% was taken from your daily wage without a proxy consent form.
- The consent amount is larger than the remaining employer cap.
- Proxy collection was used for a job that is not eligible.
- As a member, your monthly fee exceeded the cap or you also paid per-job fees.
Fines and administrative sanctions by number of violations for taking money beyond the announced fees| Violation | Fine (Decree annex) | Sanction (Rules Annex 2) |
|---|
| 1st | KRW 5,000,000 | 1-month business suspension |
| 2nd | KRW 7,500,000 | 2-month business suspension |
| 3rd or later | KRW 10,000,000 | Cancellation of registration |
Employment Security Act Article 50(1) sets a fine of up to KRW 10 million for taking money beyond the announced fees (item 1) and for taking advance payments from employers (item 2).
For domestic paid placement businesses, fines, suspensions and cancellations are handled by the registering city, county or district office.
Running paid placement without registration is punishable by up to 5 years in prison or a KRW 50 million fine under Article 47.
Step-by-step use and scenarios
- Choose the fee type (per placement or membership), the occupation and the year.
- For per-placement fees, enter the daily or monthly wage, work days or months, whether the period is 3 months or longer, and whether lodging is provided.
- Enter the total you paid or had deducted and, if known, the fee the employer paid directly.
- Tick whether you signed a fee agreement or proxy consent form, the consent amount, and whether you paid before the contract.
- Review the possible excess and review points, then save the TXT refund request worksheet.
Construction day labor
Check whether the daily 10% is the employer’s fee handled with a consent form or your own fee.
The yearly figure makes the refund decision easier.
Caregivers
If you work month after month, compare whether per-placement fees or a membership fee costs you less.
Housekeepers
Money charged for each job after joining as a member is an extra placement fee that Notice I.3 does not allow.
Frequently asked questions
Is it illegal for a staffing office to take 10% of my daily wage?
The employer cap for construction day labor is 10%, so it may be within the cap if it is the employer’s fee agreed in a proxy consent form.
Without a form it can only be treated as your own fee, and anything above the 1% cap becomes possible excess.
How much can a caregiver placement agency charge?
The caregiver’s own fee is up to 1% of the base wage with a written contract.
The employer (the patient’s family) fee is up to 30%, and with a consent form the caregiver may collect it and pass it on within that cap.
I am a member but paid again for each placement.
Notice I.3 says a day worker who joined as a member may not be charged placement fees on top of the monthly fee.
The calculator counts all of that extra money as possible excess.
I heard the jobseeker fee used to be 3%.
It was 3% temporarily from 2017-07-01 to 2019-06-30.
Since 2019-07-01 the cap is 1%, which this calculator uses.
What if I paid before the job started?
Placement fees must be collected after the employment contract is concluded (Notice I.1, Decree Article 25(6)).
Only membership fees and high-skilled professional placement are exempt.
How do I get the excess back?
Ask the office for copies of the fee agreement and consent form, then request a refund in writing with the TXT worksheet.
If it refuses, you can report it to the registering city, county or district office, and the refund itself may require a civil claim.
How do I know whether the office is registered?
The office must post its registration certificate and a fee table showing the announced fees (Rules Annex 1-2).
Its advertising must also show its name, phone number, location and registration number, so ask the local office using that number.
Does this apply to dispatch or subcontracting companies?
This calculator covers job placement only.
Worker dispatch and subcontracting fall under other laws and are not assessed.
Check first whether your arrangement is placement, dispatch or subcontracting.
Limits and cautions
A possibility check, not a ruling
The calculator does not decide whether the office is actually a registered paid placement business or a dispatch or subcontracting company.
High-skilled professionals (Rules Article 18-2), overseas paid placement and money taken by free placement businesses are outside its scope.
If withholding tax or social insurance was also deducted from your daily wage, that is not a placement fee, so leave it out of the amount paid.
The refund amount, late interest and whether a violation occurred are finally decided by the registering office and the courts.
For reference, the tax case Daejeon District Court 2013Guhap101363 (decided 2014-10-01) treated a business that received total wages and fees and paid day workers after keeping the fee as a job placement business.
The judgment did not decide the fee cap, so it is not used in the calculation and is mentioned only as an example of the deduction structure.
Official sources and update policy
Checked 2026-10-29 against current versions through the Korean National Law Information open API.
- Domestic Paid Job Placement Fee Notice: administrative rule 2100000081610, MOEL Notice 2017-22, effective 2017-07-01, items I.1–I.4.
- Employment Security Act MST 259231 (effective 2024-07-24): Articles 19(1) and (3), 21-2, 36, 47 and 50(1).
- Enforcement Decree MST 284877 (effective 2026-03-24): Article 25(6), Article 38 and the annex fines of KRW 5, 7.5 and 10 million.
- Enforcement Rules MST 263203 (effective 2024-06-12): Article 18-2, Article 26, Annex 1-2 and Annex 2.
- 2026 minimum wage Notice 2025-47 (KRW 10,320 per hour), 2027 minimum wage Notice 2026-60 (KRW 10,700 per hour), and Labor Standards Act MST 285279 Article 43.
The minimum wage is announced every August, so the membership cap is updated each year, and the percentages are rechecked whenever the fee notice is amended.