The number of caregivers in Korea is set to reach nearly 500,000, but the majority earn less than the mandatory minimum wage and have scant social security benefits, a report showed Wednesday.
The report by the presidential Economic and Social Development Commission said the number of professional caregivers stood at 487,000 as of 2011, with 200,000 of them estimated to be employed by government entities.
The report included workers in six caregiving sectors including elderly, baby and postnatal care as well as helpers for the sick, the disabled and households.
While the report showed a large number of workers are employed as care-givers, wage levels and social security packages for the sector lag far behind others, according to a survey by the labor ministry.
The average privately-employed helper for a sick person earns only 2,500 won (US$2.2) per hour, far less than the 4,320-won mandatory minimum wage set by the government for the year 2011, the ministry's recent survey showed. About 4 of 10 professional household helpers take home far lower wages than the minimum hourly salary, it also showed.
Most of the tallied workers were found have no basic insurance benefits or regular vacations, which workers in other fields are entitled to.
The survey found that even those caregivers employed by the health or family ministries, as well as other governmental entities, get wages equal to or only slightly higher than the minimum wage requirement.
In a bid to shore up welfare benefits for caregivers, the presidential commission will come up with social security improvement measures and other assistance plans, the commission said. These will then be recommended to the government for implementation, it added. (Yonhap)
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