← AMS English
MONEY FOR RESEARCH ≠ MONEY FOR RESEARCHERS
Korea spends heavily on R&D. Who receives it?
A national R&D ratio counts equipment, materials, outsourced development and facilities as well as labour. This page separates investment in technology from the reward, authority and career security returned to the people doing the research.
4.9%
Korea gross R&D as share of GDP
OECD, 2021
3.9%
Business R&D as share of GDP
More than twice the OECD average
47.0%
Share of business R&D by top 10 firms
2019, OECD·MSIT·KISTEP
1.973억
R&D spending per researcher
2023; total input, not salary
The average hides two concentrations
FACTMore than 70% of Korean business R&D spending is performed by firms with at least 500 employees; firms below 50 employees account for less than 14%. This concentration is not unique to Korea, but Korea’s largest-company concentration is unusually strong.
FACTThe top five companies accounted for 33.8% and the top ten for 47.0% of all business R&D in 2019. A national total therefore cannot describe the median Korean company.
LIMITKISTEP’s KRW 197.3 million per researcher is total R&D input per researcher—not take-home pay. Dividing total expenditure by headcount does not reveal wages, patent rewards, job security or decision authority.
LIMITStatistics Korea reports average monthly income of KRW 6.13M at large firms and KRW 3.07M at SMEs in 2024. This covers all workers, not researchers only; it demonstrates the firm-size pay gap but cannot be presented as researcher salary.
A functioning incumbent
High R&D spending is valuable when researchers receive competitive pay, a credible patent reward, technical authority, time to fail and a career path after a project ends.
An extractive incumbent
It advertises the R&D total, books equipment as innovation, keeps patent ownership and upside at the organisation, then treats the researcher’s salary and headcount as costs to minimise.
PRIMARY / INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES