Women Who Say "A Husband's Annual Salary of 100 Million Won Is a Given"... Matchmaking CEO: "They Talk About It Like It's Nothing"

Matchmaking Agency Head: "They Talk About 100 Million Won as if It's Nothing"
"50 Million Won Is Nothing to Be Ashamed of or Considered a Small Amount"
Workers Earning 100 Million Won or More Make Up 6.7% of the Total

The head of a matchmaking agency criticized some women in their 20s who take an annual salary of 100 million won for granted as a requirement for a spouse, calling it “a huge misconception.”

Park Jeongwon, CEO of Noble Mariaju, talks about the “annual salary of 100 million won” requirement on the YouTube channel “Hanbang Eonni.” YouTube.

On October 13, a video from the YouTube channel “Hanbang Eonni,” featuring Park Jeongwon, CEO of Noble Mariaju, spread across online communities. The video was titled “Why an Annual Salary of 100 Million Won Still Doesn’t Cut It in the Marriage Market.” In it, Park said, “Women talk about 100 million won as if it were a trivial amount, saying that a man needs to earn around that much to be considered capable.”

“An annual salary of 100 million won is the price tag for giving your life to work... They talk about it far too casually”

Park brought up what women in their 20s who recently came to her for consultations had told her. “They say, ‘I don’t care about the other conditions. An annual salary of 100 million won is enough,’ treating the value of that salary as a given,” she said. “They mention 100 million won as casually as if they were choosing a convenience-store lunchbox.” A member of the production team in her 20s expressed a similar view in the video. When Park asked her about an annual salary of 100 million won, she replied, “I think you need to have around 100 million won. Prices have gone up a lot lately, and shouldn’t a man be earning around that much?” Park laughed and responded, “You’re crazy. Why would you think that?”

Park described an annual salary of 100 million won as “the price tag for giving your life to work.” She said it was not a reflection of someone’s current market value based on their abilities, but rather the accumulated value of a life built over 10 to 15 years. She cited the case of a 38-year-old manager at a large company whom she had counseled. The man earned about 120 million won a year. He joined the company at 26, became an assistant manager at 30 and a manager at 33. In the meantime, he repeatedly worked late nights and weekends, leaving him no time to date, and also spent one to two years working overseas as an expatriate. He often left work at 11 p.m. and only exceeded an annual salary of 100 million won after successfully completing several projects. “He spent the most promising years of his life working only for the company, when he could have been getting married,” Park said. “He invested more than 12 years of his life in the company before earning 100 million won. It wasn’t money he earned easily.”

Park said social media and the media had influenced these high expectations. “Women’s expectations are already set at 50 million won or more, so they talk about 70 million to 80 million won as the baseline and then mention 100 million won,” she said. “When they look at social media or the media, 50 million won seems relatively small.” She added, “Most people who say these things don’t even earn 50 million won a year,” but stressed that “an annual salary of 50 million won is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, nor is it a small amount. It is the result of having one’s abilities proven for at least seven years, and a figure to be proud of.”

Average annual salary per office worker: about 45 million won

Office workers heading to work in Taepyeongno 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jinhyeong.

In reality, most office workers earn far less than 100 million won a year. According to the “2024 Earned Income Tax Return Data” obtained from the National Tax Service by Park Seonghun of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly’s Strategy and Finance Committee, the average annual salary per office worker was about 45 million won. The median salary, the amount at the midpoint when earners are ranked by income, was 34.17 million won, more than 10 million won below the average. Even the average salary of the top 20% was 65.34 million won. As of 2023, 1.39 million workers earned more than 100 million won in total annual salary, accounting for 6.7% of all workers.

In Duo’s “2023 Ideal Spouse” survey of unmarried men and women aged 25 to 39, the most frequently selected range for a desired husband’s annual income was “70 million won or more” (22.6%). The average annual income women considered ideal for a husband was 60.67 million won, less than 100 million won. Another 15.8% of women said their husband’s annual income was “not important.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.