[THE INVESTOR] The earnings of nearly 90 percent of South Koreans working as actors, models or musicians fall far below the minimum wage, data showed on Jan. 16.



According to the National Tax Service, about 90 percent of taxpayers categorized as actors, models and musicians earned less than 10 million won (US$8,497) in 2015.







SM Entertainment CEO Lee Soo-man is the richest person in the nation's entertainment indsutry in terms of stock assets.





In comparison, the average annual income of salaried workers in Korea came to about 32 million won.



While the vast majority scraped by on less than minimum wages, the incomes of those falling in the top 1 percent accounted for nearly half of all profits generated by individuals in their respective professions.



By profession, the bottom 90 percent of the 8,291 people registered as models had the lowest average monthly income, reporting earnings of 2 million won in 2015, putting the monthly average at below 170,000 won.



In contrast, the top 82 earners’ average came to 440 million won, accounting for 48 percent of the total.



Of the 15,423 taxpayers working as actors, 13,881 or 90 percent earned on average 7 million won in 2015, putting the monthly average at 580,000 won. The top 1 percent, however, recorded an average of over 1.95 billion won.



The average for professional singers in the bottom 90 percentile came to about 8 million won, while the top 1 percent, 45 individuals, earned just over 3.1 billion won.



By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)