Over 170,000 Workers Make a Living in Entertainment

Over 170,000 people were aspiring to become celebrity singers or models and make a living off the entertainment industry as of 2010, according to a recent report.

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The National Tax Service published the information on tax data showing that 172,095 people earned their income last year while working as singers, models, actors, extras or composers, up 38.4 percent from 2009.

In terms of job category, there were 11,490 singers, up 55 percent from the previous year, 28,743 actors, up 50.3 percent, and 13,560 models, up 37.7 percent. There were also more than 100,000 people working for them as assistant managers, instrumentalists or drivers.

But the average wage of entertainers decreased from 2009. Actors made W13.77 million (US$1=W1,150) a year on average in 2010, down 20.4 percent from the previous year.

The average annual wage of singers was W8.48 million, down 11.9 percent. Models, extras and composers made W4.95 million, W4.84 million and W7.2 million, respectively. This fell below the minimum wage for a single-person household, which stood at W9.07 million a year in 2010.