Employees in South Korea can expect to work more years

Due to the shrinking working population in the country, the government is considering extending or abolishing the retirement age.
By: | June 22, 2022

This is one of the ways being considered to keep people in the workforce longer. The government would do this by increasing the age workers can start receiving their state pension, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance.

In addition, it is also considering removing the company’s salary cap that corporations have put in place for those who are near retirement, so that these employees can be paid fairly to continue working.

However, paying more experienced employees according to their experience without a salary cap could place more of a burden on corporations, and spark off a potential generational conflict.

Specifically, younger employees may feel that their opportunities will be limited if they are competing with older adults.

READ: South Korea continues debate over peak wage system

South Korea continues to face a steep population drop, with experts at Statistics Korea projecting that in 30 years, the country is going to lose more than a third of its working population, according to Arirang.