Korean Unemployment Benefit Calculator

Estimates the daily job-seeking allowance, entitlement days, and total under Korea's employment insurance.

Separation date (last day of work)

Age on the separation date

Registered disability (uses the 50-and-over table)

Insured period under employment insurance

Contracted hours per day

The floor is proportional to contracted daily hours. Choose 8 for a standard 40-hour week, or your actual contracted hours if you worked part-time.

Pay in the last 3 months

An estimate for reference only. The floor assumes 8 contracted hours a day (a 40-hour week), so part-time workers will have a lower floor than shown. Cap and floor figures are applied for separations from 2023 onward, and eligibility itself is not checked — that requires at least 180 insured days in the 18 months before leaving, plus a qualifying reason for separation. Confirm your actual entitlement with your local employment center or at www.ei.go.kr.

Korean unemployment benefit calculator

Estimates Korea's job-seeking allowance from separation date, age, insured period, and 3-month pay.

Daily allowance = average daily wage over the last 3 months × 60%, then clipped to the cap and floor that applied on your separation date. For 2026 separations that is 68,100 won and 66,048 won. Entitlement runs 120 to 270 days under Schedule 1 of the Employment Insurance Act.

When 60% of the average daily wage exceeds the cap, the cap applies.3-month pay of 12,000,000 KRW over 92 days → 130,434 × 60% = 78,260 → capped at 68,100 for a 2026 separation.
When 60% falls below the floor, the floor applies instead.3-month pay of 7,500,000 KRW over 92 days → 81,521 × 60% = 48,913 → floored at 66,048.
Mid-range salaries land on the floor too. In 2026 you only clear the floor once the base daily wage passes 110,080 won, roughly 3.35 million won a month.3-month pay of 9,500,000 KRW over 92 days → 103,260 × 60% = 61,956 → still floored at 66,048.
Entitlement days come from your age on the separation date and your insured period, not from tenure at one employer.Age 49 with 4 insured years → 180 days. Age 51 with 12 insured years → 270 days. Age 51 with 8 insured months → 120 days.
The separation date decides everything. Leaving one day earlier can move you to the previous year's cap and floor.Left 2025-12-31 → cap 66,000, floor 64,192. Left 2026-01-02 → cap 68,100, floor 66,048.
The two extremes for a 2026 separation.Maximum 68,100 × 270 days = 18,387,000 KRW. Minimum 66,048 × 120 days = 7,925,760 KRW.

Base daily wage (기초일액): The starting figure for the calculation. Under article 45(1) of the Employment Insurance Act it is the average wage at the time of the last separation: total pay over the preceding three months divided by the number of days in that period. It is capped at 113,500 won for 2026 separations.
Daily allowance (구직급여일액): What is actually paid per day. Article 46(1) sets it at 60% of the base daily wage, or 80% where the minimum base daily wage applies, which produces the floor. Separations before 1 October 2019 used 50% and 90% instead.
Entitlement days (소정급여일수): The total number of days benefits can be paid, from 120 to 270, set by Schedule 1 of the Employment Insurance Act according to age on the separation date and insured period. Insured periods from several employers can be added together; uninsured work does not count.
Benefit period (수급기간): The calendar window for collecting, fixed at 12 months from the day after separation by article 48. Unused entitlement days expire when the window closes, which is why filing promptly matters more than the number of days on paper.
Waiting period (대기기간): Under article 49, the first seven days counted from the date unemployment is reported are unpaid. The clock starts at the report, not at separation, so a late filing pushes the first payment back by the same amount.