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Traveling, following hobbies or volunteering.
These are typical activities most people dream of doing after retirement, but they seem to be out of reach for many Koreans. A majority of them continue working after their official retirement age due to the poor social safety net coupled with early retirement.
According to Statistics Korea, 63.9 percent of those between the ages of 55 and 79 are working. It is up 2 percentage points from a year ago.
As many as 64.1 percent of senior citizens say they want to work in the future, mostly to take care of living expenses. When asked how long they would like to work, they said they will work until 72, on average.
The ratio of senior citizens who remain in the workforce is much higher in Korea compared with other developed countries, and that is basically due to the poor welfare system.
"In the case of countries that have strong social security systems including pensions, senior citizens don't have to keep working as they get enough money to take care of themselves. What Korean retirees get, however, falls far short of their basic living expenses. They have no other option but to continue working," said Yang Hee-seung, professor of labor economics at KDI School of Public Policy and Management.
According to the data released by Statistics Korea, senior citizens receive on average 570,000 won a month as a pension, which is up 50,000 won from a year ago.
However, a majority of them, or 42.9 percent, were getting only between 100,000 won and 250,000 won, while only 9.7 percent received more than 1.5 million won each month.
The stingy state pension covers only 39.3 percent of the income in Korea for retirees, while the ratio stands at 71.3 percent for Americans, and over 50 percent for other developed economies such as Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany.
As a result, the relative poverty ratio of senior citizens 65 years of age or older, or those below half of the median household income, was 45.7 percent, the highest among OECD countries. The OECD average is 12.5 percent.
Experts say early retirement is also behind the high poverty rate. Koreans quit their main jobs much earlier than the official age.
According to Statistics Korea data, senior citizens retired from the workplace where they had worked the longest at the average age of 49.1. Most of them quit against their will, with 31.9 percent citing closure of business or layoffs and 19.5 percent citing poor health as reasons.
"Those in their 50s are supposed to be working hard, but the ratio of the economically active population is low in this group compared with their peers in developed countries. As they lose regular income, they often have to take whatever low-paying jobs they can," Yang said.
Ryu Sang-yoon, a researcher at LG Economic Research Institute, said the job outlook is not bright for senior citizens.
"Senior employment is still restricted to certain sectors and industries, and their outlook is not very positive. Jobs such as janitors and apartment building guards will likely see demand decrease because of the automation of facility management. It is the same with the transportation industry where many elderly men work," he said.
"If the demand falls short of the labor supply of senior citizens, wages may fall further."
Due to the poor pension system, Korean senior citizens have relied on their families, but this may not be sustainable due to the low birth rate and weakening family bonds. It is becoming difficult to rely economically on children.
"Children don't think it is their obligation to support their parents anymore. Now, Korean society increasingly believes each individual is responsible for their life after retirement, along with the government," Ryu said.
While bolstering the social safety net should be given the biggest priority, it means snowballing fiscal spending by the government.
Experts thus stress that workers should be encouraged to prepare multiple layers of income after retirement, such as a retirement pension and other private pensions. Only 24 percent of Koreans, however, have subscribed to these schemes, and thus there should be more incentives offered for subscription.
Ryu said the problem should be tackled in two ways. "Senior citizens who wish to continue working need job security. Those who cannot work, meanwhile, should be provided more support for their livelihoods."
Businesses should also continue hiring senior workers, according to Yang.
"Studies show older workers are complementing AI following the Fourth Industrial Revolution instead of being substituted by robots and AI. Though they may lack understanding of new technologies, their experience is complementing the loopholes in AI," he said.
"If businesses change their prejudice about elderly workers, they would be able to keep their jobs and not fall into poverty."
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