By Yi Whan-woo
The government said Wednesday that it will provide more support for low-income workers earning less than 1.3 million won ($1,190) per month to help ease their burden for national pension and unemployment insurance contributions.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said it will pay half the monthly premium for the pension and insurance for low-income workers with small businesses that employ fewer than 10 people, starting from April 1.
The decision came after the National Assembly earlier this month approved a revision bill designed to provide more subsidies to people on low incomes, most of who are non-regular employees.
In 2012, only those who earned less than 1.05 million won per month were eligible to receive these benefits. For those with a monthly wage between 1.05 million won and 1.25 million won, the government paid one third of monthly contributions toward national pension and unemployment insurance.
The two provisions are half of the four pillars of the country’s welfare system along with national health insurance and occupational hazard insurance.
However, a number of low-income laborers, including 200 million non-regular workers, are not contributing to the pension and jobless insurance because they cannot afford to, according to a ministry official.
“On the other hand, most are in the national health insurance scheme. In terms of occupational hazard insurance, an employer is required by law to pay expenses to workers when they are hurt while working. But many low-income workers cannot benefit from the welfare system,” said Park Hee-jun, deputy director of employment insurance planning division at the ministry.
The government initially proposed to allocate 480 billion won to help financially struggling workers this year. Lawmakers, however, decided to increase this amount to 620 billion won in order to provide more support for them.
The decision was also made as a way of helping President-elect Park Geun-hye keep her promise to narrow the widening income gap between the rich and poor.
“The presidential transition team has not made any response to our decision, but I’m sure the incoming President will support it as much as possible,” the deputy director said.