Korean Leave Health Premium and Return Budget Calculator

Estimate 2026 Korean ordinary or parental leave health and care premiums, compare confirmed notices and payments, and plan the first payroll after return with deferral and installment checks.

2026 Korean ordinary/parental leave · employee-share budget

Replace the example inputs with your records. Reduction lowers premiums; deferral changes billing timing. Applications from 2026-09-28 require the three-times health threshold, the per-installment monthly minimum and a maximum of 12 payments.

1. Leave type and dates

Use employer-confirmed average leave pay; exclude employment-insurance parental benefits. A non-first-day start excludes that month; a non-first-day return includes that month. Verify boundary months to avoid duplicating regular premiums.

2. Notices, payments and deferral

Enter only employee shares for these covered months. Exclude employer shares, other settlements and non-payroll premiums. Zero in notice mode is a confirmed amount; use estimate mode for unknown notices.

3. First-payroll and installment budget

Changes clear approval confirmation. Requested installments are reduced when they breach the per-payment health minimum. Without confirmed notice totals and approval, installments remain a scenario.

First-payroll cash budget

★ Planned first-month budget

352,470 KRW

First month with single payment

732,070 KRW

Cash shortfall

152,470 KRW

Conditional installments assuming approval · Eligibility pending verification

Based on the statutory reduction model estimate · Deferral unverified · Payment records checked: Unverified

Covered months / estimated monthly health + care
7 / 81,340 KRW
Outstanding health / care budget
503,300 KRW / 66,080 KRW
Three-times health threshold
431,400 KRW
Amount-based maximum / planned installments
3 / 3
First-month reduction with installments
379,600 KRW
Health / care overpayment to review
0 KRW / 0 KRW

Estimates, unverified payments and unknown deferral cannot establish a final bill or eligibility. Installments change timing; overpayment figures do not establish refunds or automatic health/care offsets.

Monthly reduction estimates

The deferred running total uses model amounts before payment deductions. It is zero without deferral and hypothetical when deferral is unverified.

Estimated employee health, care, health reduction and deferred running totals by month
MonthHealthCareHealth reductionTotalPlanned deferred total
2026-0371,900 KRW9,440 KRW71,900 KRW81,340 KRW81,340 KRW
2026-0471,900 KRW9,440 KRW71,900 KRW81,340 KRW162,680 KRW
2026-0571,900 KRW9,440 KRW71,900 KRW81,340 KRW244,020 KRW
2026-0671,900 KRW9,440 KRW71,900 KRW81,340 KRW325,360 KRW
2026-0771,900 KRW9,440 KRW71,900 KRW81,340 KRW406,700 KRW
2026-0871,900 KRW9,440 KRW71,900 KRW81,340 KRW488,040 KRW
2026-0971,900 KRW9,440 KRW71,900 KRW81,340 KRW569,380 KRW

Conditional installments assuming approval

This payroll-deduction budget starts in the first payroll month. Confirm actual due dates with your employer. Later regular premiums hold the first-month inputs constant; recheck 2027 bills.

Health and care installments, separate regular premiums and monthly cash budgets
Payroll monthHealth paymentCare paymentSeparate regularCash budget
2026-10167,760 KRW22,020 KRW162,690 KRW352,470 KRW
2026-11167,760 KRW22,020 KRW162,690 KRW352,470 KRW
2026-12167,780 KRW22,040 KRW162,690 KRW352,510 KRW

Employer and NHIS checklist

  1. Reduction type, covered period, pre-settlement remuneration, average employer leave pay and billing rounding
  2. The 14-day rule for deferral application, changes and cancellation, and actual receipt status
  3. Health/care payment records, first payroll deduction month and overlapping regular premiums in boundary months
  4. The three-times threshold, monthly per-installment minimum, maximum 12 payments, request and approval, and final notice

Check the separate April annual settlement

Official rules checked: 2026-10-18 · Enforcement Rule Article 50 · Premium Reduction Notice Article 8

Related calculators

Plan leave premiums and the first payroll after returning

Keeping Korean employee health-insurance status during leave does not make every premium disappear.
Ordinary and parental leave use different reductions, while deferred bills can accumulate until the first remuneration payment after return.
This calculator brings the reduction estimate, recorded payments and first-payroll cash requirement into one budget.

Employees taking illness or family-care leave, parents returning from parental leave and payroll administrators can use the results to avoid overlooking reductions or underfunding the first deduction.
The practical decision is how much cash to reserve while confirming the actual billing and installment arrangements with the employer.

Korea-specific 2026 scope

This tool covers remuneration-based employee premiums for one employer and one leave interval within 2026.
Leave start, return, application date and first payroll month must all be in 2026.
Maternity leave, retirement, status changes, multiple employers, overlapping reductions and non-payroll income premiums require individual review and are withheld.
Installments extending into 2027 hold the entered regular premiums constant as a budget assumption; they do not establish 2027 rates or bills.

Reduction, billing deferral and installments are separate

Ordinary leave reduction

The reduction is 50% of the difference between the premium based on pre-leave reported remuneration before settlement and the premium equivalent of employer pay during leave.
With no employer pay, the model retains half the original premium; partial employer pay reduces the relief.
Employer pay above the pre-leave basis does not create a negative reduction.

Parental leave reduction

Parental leave uses the employee remuneration-premium minimum regardless of employer pay during leave.
The 2026 health minimum is KRW 20,160 for employer and employee combined, or KRW 10,080 for the ordinary employee share.
Applying the ordinary unpaid-leave 50% rule to parental leave would materially misstate this budget.

Reduction lowers the premium itself, deferral postpones the bill, and installments spread payment after return.
Installments are not an additional discount.
A confirmed reduction does not establish that deferral or installments have also been processed; check each status separately.

Reconcile payroll records and NHIS notices

Reported remuneration and employer leave pay

Use pre-leave reported monthly remuneration before settlement, not the net salary arriving in a bank account.
If there is no previous-month basis, verify the leave-start-month basis with payroll.
Average monthly employer pay during leave must be confirmed by payroll; do not divide a payment total by calendar months without checking the reporting basis.
Exclude parental benefits paid by employment insurance from employer leave pay.

Notices and payments already made

Estimate mode uses the reduction model; notice mode uses confirmed employee health and care notice totals after reduction for these covered months.
Exclude employer contributions, other settlements and non-payroll income premiums.
Match paid amounts to the same period and insurance component.
A verified zero payment is different from missing records: select the payment-confirmation checkbox only after checking the records.

Reference premium, regular deductions and cash

The installment reference is the monthly employee health premium alone; do not add care.
Separate regular premiums in the first payroll must exclude deferred amounts to prevent double counting.
Enter only cash available for these premiums, leaving money already allocated to rent or living costs outside the reserve.

Covered months follow calendar boundaries

Under Enforcement Rule Article 50(4), a first-day leave start includes that month; any other start begins the covered period in the following month.
A return on the first day ends the period in the previous month; any other return includes the return month.
This calculator uses those boundaries for its reduction model rows, while requiring employer verification of actual NHIS months and separate regular deductions.

Date examples

  • 2026-03-01 start, 2026-10-01 return: March–September, 7 months
  • 2026-03-15 start, 2026-10-01 return: April–September, 6 months
  • 2026-03-01 start, 2026-10-15 return: March–October, 8 months

The one-month minimum is a separate check

Enforcement Rule Article 46(5) requires leave of at least one month for the reduction.
Civil Act Article 160 uses calendar months; if the next month has no corresponding day, the period expires on that month’s last day.
A 2026-01-31 start therefore requires leave through February 28 and return on March 1 to complete one calendar month.
A withheld short-leave result does not mean exemption or a zero premium.

2026 health and care formulas and rounding

The health rate is 7.19%; the income-based care rate is 0.9448%, and ordinary employee health premiums are split equally between employer and employee.
The combined monthly remuneration-based health limits are KRW 20,160–9,183,480, corresponding to KRW 10,080–4,591,740 for the employee share.
The ordinary-leave reduction applies to the pre-leave premium basis.
Zero employer pay has zero premium equivalent; the ordinary working-month minimum is not applied again to that zero.

Calculation sequence

Pre-leave health premium − (pre-leave health premium − employer-pay premium equivalent) × 50% gives the reduced ordinary-leave premium; take the 50% employee share.
Parental leave uses KRW 10,080 monthly employee health.
Care premium = reduced employee health premium × 0.9448% ÷ 7.19%.

The displayed 13.14% is an approximation, not the calculation rate.
The model uses the ratio of the two statutory rates, floors employee monthly health and care separately to KRW 10, and preserves installment remainders in the last payment.
This is a budgeting convention, not an exact reproduction of NHIS allocation, corrections or rounding; use confirmed notice totals when available.

Worked example: seven months of unpaid ordinary leave

Assume pre-leave reported remuneration of KRW 4,000,000, leave starting 2026-03-01, return on 2026-10-01 and no employer pay.
The seven covered months reduce employee monthly health from KRW 143,800 to KRW 71,900.
Monthly care is KRW 9,440 and the monthly total is KRW 81,340.

Covered-period total

Health KRW 503,300 + care KRW 66,080 = KRW 569,380.
If records confirm zero already paid and full deferral, this is the premium balance to reserve for after return.
An unverified deferred running total is a scenario, not a confirmed bill.

First payroll with a single payment

Assume separate regular deductions of health KRW 143,800 and care KRW 18,890, totaling KRW 162,690.
The first-month budget is KRW 569,380 + KRW 162,690 = KRW 732,070.
Replace these separate regular deductions with the actual first-payroll amounts.

Compare parental and partly paid ordinary leave

Estimated employee premiums for KRW 4 million pre-leave pay and seven covered months
Leave typeMonthly healthMonthly care7-month total
Ordinary, unpaidKRW 71,900KRW 9,440KRW 569,380
Ordinary, KRW 2,000,000 average employer payKRW 107,850KRW 14,170KRW 854,140
Parental, regardless of employer payKRW 10,080KRW 1,320KRW 79,800

Identical dates and pre-leave pay can produce different premiums because the leave category and employer pay differ.
The partly paid example assumes payroll confirms average employer remuneration of KRW 2,000,000.
Parental leave uses the minimum regardless of that pay.
With the same separate regular premiums of KRW 162,690, the parental-leave single-payment first-month budget is KRW 242,490.

Use actual notices and payments to reconcile the balance

Notice mode uses confirmed health and care totals as the budget ledger.
Monthly rows remain model estimates, with the difference from actual totals disclosed separately.
Reported average pay, monthly allocation, rounding and retrospective corrections can explain differences.
The tool does not conceal them or assign them to the final model month as if that were an actual notice.

Outstanding amounts and overpayments are distinct

Outstanding health = max(0, health notice or model total − health already paid); care follows the same formula.
Amounts paid above a component total are shown for overpayment review and are not automatically offset against the other component.
They do not establish a refund: verify payment attribution and NHIS corrections with payroll.
A balance without billing deferral does not automatically qualify for leave-deferral installments; check outstanding billing or arrears separately.

Leave installments use a three-times threshold

Enforcement Rule Article 50(6)–(7) provides for an installment request when deferred remuneration-based health premiums reach three times the monthly premium and the employee requests it.
For applications from 2026-09-28, up to 12 payments are possible, and each monthly health installment must be at least the reference monthly health premium.
This is different from the April annual-settlement minimum: care cannot be added to make health meet the three-times threshold.

The unpaid-leave example allows three payments

Outstanding health of KRW 503,300 exceeds three times KRW 143,800, or KRW 431,400.
Four payments would fall below the monthly health minimum, so the maximum is three.
Health is allocated KRW 167,760 / 167,760 / 167,780; care is KRW 22,020 / 22,020 / 22,040.
The first deferred payment is KRW 189,780, and adding separate regular premiums of KRW 162,690 gives KRW 352,470 for the first month.
That is KRW 379,600 below the single-payment budget; with KRW 200,000 cash, the shortfall is KRW 152,470.

In the parental example, health of KRW 70,560 is below the same three-times threshold, so the tool shows a single-payment budget.
Unknown reference premiums, payments or deferral leave eligibility pending; schedules without confirmed notice totals and approval remain conditional.
Applications before 2026-09-28 require historical-rule review and show only a single-payment budget, without applying the later 12-payment limit retroactively.
A smaller first-month deduction does not reduce the total outstanding premium.

How to use the calculator before returning

  1. Enter the leave-order start and actual first return day, then compare covered months with NHIS reporting.
  2. Select ordinary or parental leave and replace pre-leave remuneration and average employer pay with payroll-confirmed figures.
  3. Use notice mode when totals are confirmed, reconcile health/care payments, and verify deferral processing.
  4. Enter the first payroll month and separate regular deductions, then compare requested installments, cash reserve and shortfall.
  5. Save TXT or print the estimate and confirm the application, approval and final deductions with the employer.

Before leave, compare ongoing monthly expenses without deferral against the amount to reserve for return with deferral.
Before returning, check actual receipt of applications, cancellation of deferral and the first payroll deduction month.
This budget does not accept a first payroll month before the application month; applications after an already-paid first payroll need employer/NHIS review.
Article 50 requires employer filings within 14 days after the relevant event for the initial application, changes to the expected cancellation date and the end of the deferral reason.
The tool does not submit applications or determine restoration of benefits restricted for arrears.

Frequently asked questions

Does unpaid leave mean zero health premiums?

Ordinary unpaid leave while retaining employee status uses the 50% difference reduction; it is not modeled as a complete exemption.

Does parental leave still use the minimum if the employer pays wages?

Article 8 of the Premium Reduction Notice uses the minimum regardless of employer pay during parental leave; this tool separates KRW 10,080 health from estimated KRW 1,320 care in 2026.

Is one month always 30 days?

No: calendar-month rules apply, and when the next month has no corresponding date, check its last day and the actual first return day.

Are mid-month leave and return dates prorated?

No: the model starts in the month after a mid-month start and includes a mid-month return month, so verify overlap with separate regular premiums.

Does a large accumulated bill always allow 12 payments?

No: the three-times health threshold and the monthly health minimum per installment can limit the count; employer application and approval also require verification.

Is it an error when notice totals differ from monthly rows?

Notice totals drive the actual-total budget while monthly rows remain estimates; payroll must reconcile average pay, monthly allocation, rounding and corrections.

Can health overpayments automatically cover outstanding care?

The tool does not establish refunds or offsets between components; it displays overpayment review and outstanding amounts separately.

Can I include leave extending into 2027 or the April settlement?

The leave interval must be within verified 2026 scope; use the separate April settlement calculator, and recheck future bills if installment rows extend into 2027.

Official sources and next action

Primary sources were checked on 2026-10-18 through the National Law Information OPEN API, including current status and promulgation/effective dates.
References are National Health Insurance Act Articles 70, 75, 76 and 79 (MST285273, effective 2026-10-08), Enforcement Rule Articles 46 and 50 and supplementary provisions (MST290599, effective 2026-09-28), and Enforcement Decree Article 44 (MST289701, effective 2026-10-01).
The Premium Reduction Notice is 2025-221 (ID2100000270516), and the limits notice is 2025-222 (ID2100000270472), both effective 2026-01-01.
Long-Term Care Insurance Act Enforcement Decree Article 4 (MST286011, effective 2026-05-12) and Civil Act Article 160 (MST284415, effective 2026-03-17) were also checked.

Before applying, recheck annual rates and limits, reduction and installment rules, actual bills and employer processing.
Use the calculated first-month reserve to prepare, retain the estimate and resolve each unverified item with payroll.
For annual remuneration versus already-paid premiums, use the separate Korean April health-insurance settlement calculator.