Will ‘Fair Allowance’ Transform the Lives of Temporary Workers in South Korea? Key Details Inside!

Translation result.

Kim Young-hoon, Minister of Employment and Labor, has formalized plans to introduce a “Fair Allowance” that provides additional compensation to short-term workers with unstable employment.

On the 26th, Kim told KBS’s “Sunday Diagnosis Live” that he is consulting with relevant ministries on the Fair Allowance. He said the plan would increase payments the more unstable and shorter the employment, and that the government will announce concrete measures soon.

The Fair Allowance is intended to give extra compensation to workers with short tenures or unstable contracts.

Kim said the government intends to raise allowances for shorter periods of service to help narrow wage gaps for more precarious workers. He added that the figures have been prepared and will be released shortly.

He also said the government will conduct surveys and other measures to reform the broader nonregular employment system, including the Fixed-term Employment Act, which limits contract periods to two years and has produced a structural pattern of repeatedly renewing 1-year-and-11-month contracts.

Kim said the president has asked labor and management to identify ways to protect short-hour, contingent workers, so he will put this issue on the agenda of the newly established Economic and Social Labor Council. The government plans to carry out a fact-finding survey through June and provide relevant materials to support expert discussions between labor and management, he said.

He emphasized that decisions on extending the retirement age should be completed within the first half of the year.

Kim said discussions are mature and now require decisions by labor, management, and government. Employers tend to prefer rehiring arrangements over legally raising the retirement age, while labor favors increasing the legal retirement age rather than relying on rehiring. He said the government will seek a practical combination of these positions so the outcome can function effectively in workplaces.