Korean singers more than doubled their income between 2010 and 2013, largely thanks to international fans.

The Korean National Tax Service's statistics show that average salary of singers in South Korea surpassed that of actors, television personalities, and general workers between 2010-2013. The average salary for singers had been 22.64 million won (roughly $20,820 USD) in 2010, but by the end of 2013, singers were making an average of 46.74 million won (around $42,979 USD.) Popular idol groups like Super Junior, Big Bang, Girls' Generation, and 2NE1 were some of the biggest earners.

The average salary in South Korea rose during this time period, but actors, television personalities, and general workers average salaries increased by less than 20%.

The sharp jump in singers' salaries is due to the global popularity of K-pop. International fans enable singers to perform and take on lucrative modeling campaigns in countries were the Korean Wave, Hallyu, is very popular.

"Hallyu provided K-pop stars a greater opportunity outside Korea to turn their fame into profits, mostly through concert tours and album sales," said Kim Hun-shik, a pop culture critic, to the Korea Herald.  

Actors may also be popular abroad but the revenue from concerts and tours, along with taking acting jobs and advertising contracts as many Korean singers do, makes singers more profitable.

However, the average doesn't mean that every singer is making that much money, but it is just the average. There is immense polarization in Hallyu, where the most popular singers and idol groups make a lot, but there are hundreds of other singers that are absolutely failing.

The largest stars have been spending more and more time abroad rather than in Korea. A growing trend in 2014 was year-end award shows being held in China rather than in Korea, due to China having a larger fanbase for Korean celebrities.

In comparison to the average salary of many celebrities around the world, Korean singers, actors, and television personalities made considerable less due to the prevalence of managing agencies and splitting money between multiple members in idol groups.