Increasing pension enrolment of non-regular workers

While the national pension enrolment rate for regular workers in Korea was 82 per cent in 2015, the rate for non-regular workers was a mere 38 per cent, showing weak retirement planning. There was a call to strengthen the social safety net and to realize “pension per person” by reducing the risk of non-regular workers falling through the cracks of the social insurance system amid a gradual rise in the number of non-regular workers such as daily and part-time workers due to labor market flexibility. However, there were a few challenges to raising their enrolment including difficulties in securing public income information and employers/workers rejecting enrolment. The National Pension Service (NPS), working with the National Tax Service, the Ministry of Employment and Labor and others, obtained daily worker’s income data and reduced the burden of premium payments for low-wage workers in small businesses via social insurance subsidy schemes. Such efforts led to a sharp rise in the enrolment rate of non-regular workers.