Why one salary step follows a Korean teacher until retirement
This calculator is based on Korean rules for 2026: the Public Officials Remuneration Regulation and the Ministry of Education guideline on teacher step placement.
A Korean teacher’s or public official’s monthly basic salary is set by a single step number.
In the 2026 teacher pay table, step 13 pays KRW 2,657,500 and step 14 pays KRW 2,773,700, a gap of KRW 116,200 every month.
That gap moves with every promotion and also drives the longevity allowance, the holiday bonus and later pension income.
Yet new hires often miss evidence for military service, fixed-term teaching, academy or company work, and schools sometimes apply the wrong conversion rate.
The calculator applies the Regulation (version effective 2026-10-02) and the period method of Ministry of Education Guideline No. 97 to your schooling, licence and experience.
Split experience into what the agency already has and what you have not submitted, and it shows the monthly gain from applying now, the permanent loss from waiting and any retroactive correction for an agency error.
It suits late-career new teachers, fixed-term teachers before renewal, staff who found old evidence and new grade 9 or grade 7 officials.
The teacher initial-step formula and base steps
For kindergarten to high-school teachers, annex 15 item 5 of the Regulation adds three values.
Initial step = base step (annex 25) + schooling adjustment (annex 23) + converted experience years (annex 22).
Months and days below one year are not lost: they count toward the next one-year promotion period (Article 8(5)).
Base step by licence under annex 25 of the Remuneration Regulation| Licence | Base step | 2026 salary |
|---|
| Full teacher 1st grade; counseling, librarian, nurse or nutrition teacher 1st grade | 9 | KRW 2,495,600 |
| Full teacher 2nd grade and the same specialties at 2nd grade | 8 | KRW 2,478,600 |
| Associate teacher, practical-skills teacher | 5 | KRW 2,291,500 |
Principals, vice principals, supervisors and education researchers use the 1st-grade teacher step.
With two or more licences, the licence for the subject you were actually hired to teach sets the base step.
The pay table (annex 11) runs from KRW 2,041,500 at step 1 to KRW 6,205,700 at step 40 and is amended every January.
Schooling adjustment and bonus years
The schooling adjustment is (total statutory schooling years − 16) + bonus years.
Total schooling is 6 years of primary, 3 of middle and 3 of high school plus the statutory length of the final school, so a 4-year graduate has 16 and a 2-year college graduate has 14.
Typical cases
- Teachers’ college or education department, 2nd-grade licence, no experience: 8 + 0 + 1 = step 9.
- General university with a teaching course, 2nd grade: 8 + 0 + 0 = step 8.
- 2-year college early-childhood department, 2nd grade: 8 − 2 + 0 = step 6.
- High-school graduate associate teacher: 5 − 4 = step 1.
Bonus-year rules
- Graduates of a teachers’ college with a course of 2 years or more add 1 year.
- Special-school teachers working in special schools, special classes or support centres add 2 years from a teachers’ college, or 1 year otherwise.
- Graduate schools and education departments at junior colleges do not earn the teachers’ college bonus.
A university degree earned while serving as a public official is not recognised as schooling (annex 23 note 2, commutable night schools excepted).
A master’s or doctorate earned during service adds no schooling years, and the course period counts only as experience, once, if it overlaps teaching.
So graduate school chosen only for a higher step may raise pay less than expected.
The teacher experience conversion table (annex 22)
Each kind of experience has its own recognition rate.
Rates marked “up to” are caps, and the agency’s step-review board sets the actual rate.
Main conversion rates in the teacher experience conversion table| Experience | Rate |
|---|
| Public or reported private-school teacher; fixed-term teacher with a matching licence | up to 100% |
| Active military, on-call reserve or social service; other public official | 100% |
| Industrial, research, arts or sports alternative service; ship service | 100% |
| University or institute researcher; master’s (2 years max) or doctoral (3 years max) course | up to 100% |
| Fixed-term teacher with a licence/school mismatch; temporary state post | up to 80% |
| Lawyer or judicial scrivener; teachers’ association or union; alternative-education site | up to 70% |
| Non-profit religious corporation, education duties | up to 60% |
| Unreported private-school teacher; public corporation; overseas education body; registered academy instructor | up to 50% |
| Company under the Commercial Act, including foreign companies | up to 40% |
| Unregistered academy instructor; other occupations | up to 30% |
K-12 instructors count 100% when full-time; part-time work counts weekly hours divided by the average weekly hours, and 12 hours or less, or unclear hours, counts 30%.
University lecturers rise from 50% at 5 class hours a week or less to 100% at 10 hours or more, 10% per hour.
Experience in a field closely related to the post can be raised to 100% after consultation between the education and personnel ministries (note 1).
Periods are converted in years, months and days
Guideline No. 97 counts periods as follows.
The appointment day is included and the resignation day is excluded, while the military discharge day and a fixed-term contract’s end day are included.
The rate is applied separately to months and days; a fractional month becomes days at 30 per month, and decimals of a day are dropped for each experience.
Finally 12 months make a year and 30 days make a month.
The guideline’s own example
- Fixed-term teaching of 29 days and local-government service of 1y 2m 29d count 100%, giving 1y 2m 58d.
- A public body, 10m 3d × 50% = 5m 1d, with the half day dropped.
- A company, 11m 29d × 40% = 4m + 0.4m (12 days) + 11.6 days = 4m 23d.
- The total of 1y 11m 82d becomes 2y 1m 22d: two steps are added and 1m 22d remains as the remainder.
The calculator implements this with exact integer fractions and reproduces the guideline results: 2y 1m 22d, 10m 11d for 30 of 40 hours at a public body at 50%, and 1y 4m 18d for 30 of 40 hours as a mismatched fixed-term teacher at 80%.
Average weekly hours for part-time instructors are 44 before 2005-02-28, 43 to 2006-02-28, 42 to 2012-02-29 and 40 afterwards, chosen by the start date.
Overlaps, schooling overlaps and short hours
Overlapping days count once
When two experiences cover the same day, only the higher-rate one counts (Article 8(2)).
Academy lessons taught alongside fixed-term teaching count only as teaching at 100% for those days.
Lecturing at several schools at once is not an overlap; the hours are added.
Work during study overlaps schooling
Schooling and experience that overlap count once (note 3).
A university is treated as attended until the end of February, so jobs before a February graduation drop out.
Enter your final school’s start and graduation dates and the calculator removes that part.
Military service is done on a leave of absence, so it is kept even inside those dates.
Under 15 hours a week
Shorter-than-normal teaching or similar work is converted in proportion to hours, but work under 15 hours a week falls outside that rule (note 4).
The calculator counts it as zero and lists it as a review point.
Degree courses up to the minimum length
Only a completed master’s or doctorate counts, at the school’s minimum course length, with doctorates capped at 3 years.
Course completion without a degree does not count, and periods run by semester (3.1–8.31, 9.1–end of February).
How to use the calculator
- Choose the job and dates.
Enter the appointment date, the reference date on which you plan to apply and the step the agency notified.
- Enter licence and schooling.
Pick the licence already reflected and, separately, a higher licence you obtained but have not yet applied with.
- Add experience rows.
Choosing a type fills in its cap; for part-time work, enter weekly hours.
- Mark what you submitted.
Keep “submitted” only for evidence the agency has, so the submitted-only step and the full step are calculated separately.
- Save the result.
Download the conversion table, the month-by-month delay loss and the review points as a TXT worksheet for the school office.
Example: what late company evidence costs
Take a teachers’ college graduate with a 2nd-grade licence appointed on 2026-03-01, who submitted 18 months of active service and 30 months of matching fixed-term teaching but not 36 months at a company.
The company counts 36 × 40% = 14 months 12 days, so total converted experience is 5y 2m 12d and the initial step is 8 + 1 + 5 = step 14 (KRW 2,773,700).
Without the company it is 4 years and step 13 (KRW 2,657,500), a gap of KRW 116,200 a month.
Monthly loss when a November 2026 application is delayed by six months| Month | Submitted only | All experience | Salary lost |
|---|
| 2026-12 | 13 | 14 | KRW 116,200 |
| 2027-01 to 02 | 13 | 15 | KRW 232,200 × 2 |
| 2027-03 to 05 | 14 | 15 | KRW 116,000 × 3 |
| Total | — | — | KRW 928,600 |
Applying in November 2026 gives step 14 from 2026-12-01, and the 2m 12d remainder brings step 15 on 2027-01-01.
The submitted-only path has no remainder and reaches step 14 on 2027-03-01, so the gap is two steps for two months.
A simple KRW 116,200 × 6 = KRW 697,200 understates the loss; the calculator follows the promotion timing month by month and arrives at KRW 928,600.
Adding salary-linked allowances makes the loss larger still.
Re-placement (no back pay) versus correction (back pay)
Re-placement · Article 9
Late evidence of experience, or a change in licence or schooling such as a 1st-grade teacher licence, triggers re-placement.
It applies from the 1st of the month after the month you apply, and earlier months are not paid back.
If you are on leave (other than for a work-related illness or injury), suspended, demoted or relieved of duty, it happens on your return date.
Correction · Article 18
If you submitted the evidence but the agency placed you wrongly or skipped a promotion, the step is corrected back to the wrong placement date.
The same experience can therefore be paid back or not depending on when you submitted it.
Keep copies of your evidence and application form.
Money claims against the state or a local government lapse if not exercised for five years (National Finance Act Article 96(2), Local Finance Act Article 82(2)).
The calculator shows the full correction estimate and, separately, the latest 60 months.
If the teacher above had submitted everything but was still paid at step 13, the nine months from March to November 2026 would come to an estimated KRW 1,045,800.
General-service officials (grades 5–9) and military service
General-service officials have no base step or schooling adjustment; the initial step is 1 plus experience years converted under annex 16.
A new grade 9 official with 18 months of active service starts at 1 + 1 = step 2 (KRW 2,147,600), and the 6-month remainder brings step 3 on the 1st six months after appointment.
Where only mandatory service exists it counts as service years, but in the comparison method it counts up to 3 years (annex 15 item 1).
Mind the single-grade assumption
The rules split general-service experience by grade, start from the lowest grade and convert through promotions under annex 28.
This calculator treats every experience as the appointment grade, so mixed lower-grade experience can produce a lower real step.
Grade 9 step 1 pays KRW 2,133,000, grade 7 step 1 KRW 2,317,100 and grade 5 step 1 KRW 2,896,400.
Promotion dates and salary-linked allowances
The promotion period is one year, and steps rise on the 1st of a month (Article 13).
With a 2m 12d remainder, the year is completed 9m 18d after appointment and the step rises on the next 1st of a month.
Periods that do not count toward promotion, such as discipline, removal from duty or some kinds of leave, push the date back (Articles 14 and 15).
Longevity allowance rates in annex 2 of the Allowance Regulation| Service years | Longevity allowance (of monthly salary) |
|---|
| Under 2 years | 10% |
| 2 to under 5 years | 20% |
| 5 to under 6 years | 25% |
| 6 to 9 years | 30–45% |
| 10 years or more | 50% |
The longevity allowance is paid in January and July, and the holiday bonus at Seollal and Chuseok at 60% of monthly salary each time.
Teachers’ service years for the longevity allowance use annex 22 converted experience, so adding experience also affects allowances (Allowance Regulation Article 7(4)).
The calculator converts the holiday bonus to 10% a month (60% × 2 ÷ 12) and the longevity rate × 2 ÷ 12, and reports a separate loss including linked allowances.
Frequently asked questions
Why does a new teachers’ college graduate start at step 9?
The 2nd-grade base step of 8 is joined by a schooling adjustment of 0 for a 4-year university and a 1-year teachers’ college bonus.
Primary teachers from education universities start at step 9 for the same reason, paid KRW 2,495,600 in 2026.
Does all military service count toward a teacher’s step?
Active duty, on-call reserve and social service count 100% as public service.
The discharge day is included, and unlike general-service officials, teachers have no 3-year cap.
Do fixed-term teachers get a step?
Fixed-term teachers receive the salary of a step calculated the same way, as a fixed amount.
A pension recipient hired as a fixed-term teacher is paid an amount set by the Minister of Education instead, which is outside this calculator.
I just found old company evidence. Is it paid back?
Evidence you submit later triggers re-placement, which applies only from the 1st of the month after you apply, with no back pay.
If you found the evidence, applying this month is better.
What if the school miscalculated my experience?
If the agency mishandled experience you had already submitted, Article 18 lets you ask for a correction back to the wrong placement date.
Act quickly because money claims against the state or local governments lapse after five years.
Does a 1st-grade teacher licence raise my step at once?
The base step rises from 8 to 9, adding one step, but a licence change is also a re-placement ground that applies from the 1st of the month after you apply.
Apply as soon as the licence is issued.
Does graduate school during service raise my step?
A degree earned during service adds no schooling years, and the course period counts only as experience.
If you were teaching at the same time it overlaps teaching and counts once, so the step effect is close to zero.
Can private-school teachers use this calculator?
Private-school pay follows the school corporation’s articles, which usually adopt the Regulation but are not legally identical.
Use the result as a reference and note that back pay may be limited to three years as a wage claim.
Limits and cautions
The appointing authority decides the final step
“Up to” rates and upgraded recognition are decided by the agency’s step-review board after checking your records, so results are estimates.
National university faculty, researchers, extension officers, soldiers, police, firefighters, pre-1990 deemed experience, special promotions and long-service additions are not calculated.
Non-credited periods are entered only as a number of months, so the real promotion date can differ by a few days depending on when leave occurred.
Linked allowances are a monthly-equivalent estimate that ignores changes in service-year bands.
Official sources and update policy
Checked on 2026-11-01 through the Korea Law OPEN API (current versions).
- Public Officials Remuneration Regulation MST 290321 (effective 2026-10-02): Articles 8, 9, 13, 14, 15 and 18 and annexes 3 and 11 (amended 2026-01-02), 15, 16, 22, 23 and 25.
- Guideline on applying the teacher experience conversion table: Ministry of Education Guideline No. 97, administrative rule 2100000258052, effective 2025-04-23 and valid until 2028-02-29.
- Regulation on Allowances for Public Officials MST 290323 (effective 2026-10-02): Articles 7 and 18-3 and annex 2 (amended 2025-01-03).
- National Finance Act MST 283845 Article 96 and Local Finance Act MST 291245 Article 82 (five-year limitation on money claims).
Pay tables are amended every January, so the calculator constants and tests are updated together each year.
Apply to add your experience this month
Gather a certificate of employment, a health-insurance eligibility history, a military service record and degree certificates, and file the application for adding experience for step placement with the school office or education office.
Compare the placement notice with your saved TXT worksheet and ask for a correction if the agency erred.
See how leave affects pay in the public official leave pay impact calculator, and long-term income in the public servant pension calculator and the private school pension calculator.