The pretty big incentive for some people to become K-pop Stars revolve around the idea of pay. Obviously, if people are famous, they get paid alot. Saddly, that doesn't work the same way it works in the US and Korea.

Quite frankly, you won't get paid a lot. Really little in fact. Most likely, in your first 2-3 years as a rookie, you would probably be in debt. This is probably because some companies require that you pay them back all of your training fees (and damn, that stuff isn't cheap. I read somewhere that it took 4 million USD to make one Soshi). Also, your companies probably won't give you a huge percentage of your earnings. I don't think it's as low as like 10% but I'm guessing its around 30-50% depending on your company (but this is for the entire group, so if you are in a group with 5 other members, then it would be 1/6 of that percentage). The reason you don't get the majority is because the company needs to pay for the stylists, the makeup artists, the choreographers, the producers -- anyone who had helped develop the album or you for that matter in some way needs to get their pay.

With that being said, the only real way you could become uber rich from this K-pop business if by doing CFs and Dramas -- you won't make much based off of your earnings from your albums or music videos (after all, you have to split them evenly among the members). This is probably why so many idols are in the acting/CF business. Well, they look good is why they get offers but they accept to make more money.

Truly, you shouldn't be pursuing this because it pays well -- because quite frankly, it doesn't. There are tons of jobs that pay better wages (per hour) when you consider how many hours idols spend practicing, performing, training. (I read somewhere that Hangeng got about 4000 yuan (360 USD) just from one year alone. Considering that he migh've spend about 3000-4000 hours just practicing and getting ready......that's like getting paid an average of 1 yuan (or 12 cents) an hour....)

So, you can see, idols don't make that much and considering all the stress they go through with sasaeng fans, music awars, scandals and rumors -- being an idol are those who truly want to be one.