Two out of three employed individuals with disabilities in South Korea are working in precarious, irregular jobs. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 27 (Korea Bizwire) – Two out of three employed individuals with disabilities in South Korea are working in precarious, irregular jobs, according to a new government report highlighting the economic vulnerabilities faced by this population.
The findings also reveal alarmingly low levels of retirement preparation, even as the nation’s disabled community rapidly ages.
Based on data from October 2023, the latest survey by the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities found that 34% of registered disabled individuals aged 15 and above were employed. Of those, 76.8% held salaried jobs.
However, a staggering 67.6% of the 632,782 salaried disabled workers were hired as temporary or contract staff without full-time benefits – nearly double the nationwide rate of 37% for all irregular workers as of August last year.
This disproportionate level of job insecurity for the disabled has risen 2.4 percentage points since late 2022 and shows no signs of improvement after spiking to 67.8% in 2021 amid the pandemic’s economic impact.
Irregular workers with disabilities earn monthly wages averaging just 1.46 million won, less than half of the 3.24 million won average for their counterparts in permanent salaried positions.
Overall, the average monthly pay of 2.03 million won for all employed disabled individuals amounts to only 67.4% of the nationwide average salary.
The lack of stable employment has severely hindered retirement preparations. Only 51.1% of salaried disabled workers are enrolled in national pension or occupational retirement plans, compared to the 73.9% participation rate overall for Koreans aged 18-59 who are eligible.
A separate disability employment panel survey found a mere 25.1% of respondents aged 40 and above reported making any financial provisions for their retirement years.
Nearly three-quarters admitted having no retirement savings at all, with the vast majority of those attempting to prepare still feeling their efforts were inadequate.
This economic insecurity has been compounded by the rapid aging of South Korea’s disabled population, which now accounts for 54.3% of all disabled citizens based on the latest disability census – nearly triple the 18.2% proportion of the overall elderly population.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
