By Kim Da-hee
Eight out of 10 workers consider themselves as the working poor who cannot escape poverty, recruitment portal Saramin says.
The portal surveyed 1,473 career men and women. According to the survey, the largest portion, 76.4 percent, believed that their hard work cannot help them get out of poverty. The belief is more prevalent in women (80.9 percent) than men (73.5 percent). For temporary workers it was 84.5 percent, while the figure for regular workers was 72.4 percent.
In the multiple-answer questions, 72.3 percent of respondents cited low salaries as the main cause of poverty. High prices (46.5 percent), loans (36.9 percent) and instability of employment (31.7 percent) followed.
The respondents said they should receive at least 40 million won ($34,585) a year, while their average salary was 27.63 million won ($23,890).
Almost all respondents, 94.9 percent, said they had considered changing their occupation or had changed jobs.