What does 월급루팡 (wolgeup lupang) mean? The office thief who steals only a paycheck

At 3 p.m. today, one of our editors had a spreadsheet open on screen while digging up data for this very article. A colleague walking past glanced at the monitor and grinned: “Doing a bit of 월급루팡, are we?” Unfair. This is work. Probably.

It's tossed around as a joke, but the numbers are fairly serious. One survey found that more than three in five companies say they have employees like this, and one in three workers admitted to being one. Here's where the word came from and what the numbers say.

Edaily defined it in 2013 as an employee who “doesn't work and just collects a salary,” and Kookmin Ilbo reported in 2021 on a survey that named slacking off during work hours as its most common trait. Namuwiki draws a line between it and a strike or work-to-rule: there's no protest involved. It isn't about a grievance with the company; they just don't do it. If 커터칼퇴 (sneaking out a little before quitting time) steals a few minutes, 월급루팡 steals the whole day.

• 오늘 메일 세 통 보내고 끝났네. 완벽한 월급루팡 데이Sent three emails and that was my day. A perfect 월급루팡 day.Muttered on the way home
• 그 선배 자리 비운 지 두 시간째야. 월루 장인이다That senior's been away from their desk for two hours. A 월루 master.Office messenger after lunch
• 월급루팡 소리 듣기 싫어서 일부러 일찍 출근했어요I came in early on purpose so nobody would call me 월급루팡.A new hire, one month in
• 회의 때만 열심히 하는 척하는 사람, 그게 진짜 월급루팡이지The ones who only look busy in meetings — those are the real 월급루팡.Gossip at a team dinner
• 오늘은 루팡 말고 일 좀 하자, 마감이 내일이야Let's skip the Lupin act and actually work today. Deadline's tomorrow.Team lead in the group chat

According to Namuwiki, it comes from the resemblance between an employee who pockets a salary without working and Maurice Leblanc's thief Arsène Lupin. It's spelled 루팡 (Lupang) rather than the French-style 뤼팽, which Namuwiki guesses is because Koreans know the name from the Japanese anime Lupin the Third. The plain phrase 월급 도둑 (“salary thief”) already existed; swapping the thief for a famous gentleman burglar made it a little classier and a little funnier.

Namuwiki says the word caught on around 2011, and that on April 2, 2013 the KBS quiz show 1 vs 100 asked contestants what it meant. That same month, Edaily ran a survey story with 월급 루팡 in the headline. By spring 2013, broadcasters and newspapers were using it without explanation.

One: everyone knows one. In a 2013 Career survey, 63.4% of workers said their company had a 월급루팡. A character that shows up in every office story keeps its name.

Two: it's about them and about you. In the same survey, 31.7% said they were one themselves. It works for griping about a coworker and for teasing yourself after an unproductive day. A word that's both a jab and a self-roast gets plenty of use.

Three: companies use it too. In 2021, Saramin asked 492 companies straight out whether they had “월급 루팡” employees. Slang rarely makes it into an HR survey. It means an office joke had become something management tracks.

The two surveys asked different people. In 2013, the job portal Career asked 435 workers what rank their office's 월급루팡 held (multiple answers allowed). The higher the rank, the more votes: department heads led at 24.3%, followed by executives at 21.4% and deputy heads at 19.9%, while entry-level staff were lowest at 11.6%.

Eight years later, asking companies gave a different picture. Kookmin Ilbo reported that in Saramin's 2021 survey of 492 companies, 64.2% said they had 월급 루팡 employees, making up an average 18.7% of staff — about one in five. By rank they were spread almost evenly: staff 20.3%, department heads 19.6%, managers 19%, assistant managers 16.8%. The most common trait was slacking off during work hours (73.4%), and companies estimated each such employee cost them an average 50.33 million won a year. Workers see the Lupin upstairs; companies see Lupins everywhere.

So: 월급루팡 works for griping about others and for teasing yourself. But once companies start running surveys with it, it's not entirely a joke. Our editor believes this article clears today's charges. If you have a sharper definition, add it to the 월급루팡 entry in the dictionary. See also 존버 (hanging on until payday) and 텅장 (the empty account a salary passes through).