Former MOMOLAND member Daisy recently shed light on the financial realities of being a K-Pop idol.

The former idol made a TikTok video responding to a viewer’s question that asked how much idols get paid, with figures from her personal experience at the job. Daisy clarified that it differs from person to person. “Some make a fortune, some are in crippling debt,” she added.

In her personal experience, however, the pay was not that great. Daisy revealed that during her two years of being an idol, she was paid only once, because the rest of her income went into paying off her trainee debt. For those unfamiliar with the term, “trainee debt” refers to the money a K-Pop agency spends on an individual candidate while they train under their wing. It includes miscellaneous expenses, including fees for music and dance classes, accommodation, and food.

During the course of the two years, I was paid once…It was because of the enormous amount of debt I was in…it was around 105,000 dollars in debt.

Daisy shared that during her time as a trainee, she went into a debt of USD 150,000 dollars, which she eventually paid off with her idol activities, after which she received only one paycheque. That amount, too, was not something incredible. To put it into perspective, the former idol mentioned that she made 1.3 times more at her part-time translator job during the same two years when she was promoting as an idol.

My translating job was a part-time job and I was making 11 dollars an hour… I worked there for two years, which is so convenient because I was an idol for two years…My translating job made 1.3 times more than when I was an idol.

To further help her audience scale her pay as an idol, Daisy explained that she put her one-time cheque into preparing for her college fees, the same way some people work at fast food restaurants to help pay for tuition. While she acknowledged that not all people get paid the same, and there are indeed wealthy K-Pop idols, she ended her video with a piece of realistic advice: “Think twice before becoming an idol, cause you honestly might be better off flipping burgers at Wendy’s.”