The nominal income for the country’s poorest households has posted a record decline for the second quarter.

Statistics Korea said Thursday that the average monthly nominal income for the bottom 20 percent stood at one-point-32 million won in the April-June period, down seven-point-six percent from the same period last year.

The on-year decrease was the steepest to be posted for the second quarter since the agency began compiling related data in 2003.

The top 20 percent, on the other hand, earned roughly nine million won worth of average nominal income each month in the second quarter, up an all-time high of ten-point-three percent more from a year earlier.

While the average monthly household income rose four-point-two percent on-year to four-point-53 million won, the wealth gap reached its highest level of inequality in a decade.