The proportion of non-regular workers among South Korea's wage earners reached a record high of 38.5 percent in August, the data ministry said Wednesday, with their wage gap with regular workers also reaching a new record. The total number of non-regular workers came to 8.67 million as of August, up from 8.56 million a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. South Korea conducts an annual survey on employment types among the country's economically active population based on figures from every August. The percentage of non-regular salaried employees in the country's workforce was up from 38.2 percent tallied in 2025, the report showed. An official from the ministry said both the number and proportion of non-regular workers reached their highest levels since South Korea began compiling related data under the current method in 2003. Male workers accounted for 3.7 million of the non-regular workers, while the number of female workers came to 4.96 million. By sector, 21.5 percent of non-regular workers were employed in the health and social welfare sector, followed by th