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Social and welfare issues


  • 11-May-2023

    English

    Benefit Reforms for Inclusive Societies in Korea - Income Security During Joblessness

    Protecting people, rather than specific jobs, plays a key role in promoting labour-market inclusiveness and dynamism. Effective unemployment benefits reduce inequality, and raise productivity by facilitating a good match between workers’ skills and job requirements. They are a crucial policy lever for adapting to the major societal, technological and environmental transitions of our time. This report is the first of a number of OECD country reviews of income support policies. Each report analyses key policy challenges, discusses recent reform initiatives, and identifies good practices from other OECD countries. This report on Korea focuses on avenues for strengthening benefit coverage, income security and re-employment in the context of a 'dual' labour market with large parts of the workforce in short-duration, non-standard or informal employment. It welcomes Korea’s recent reforms towards more accessible jobseeker support, and points to priorities for additional policy action to make income and employment support more effective and inclusive.
  • 20-September-2022

    English

    OECD Reviews of Pension Systems: Korea

    This review provides policy recommendations on how to improve the Korean pension system, building on the OECD’s best practices in pension design. It details the key features of the Korean pension system and identifies its strengths and weaknesses based on cross-country comparisons. The Korean pension system consists of a mandatory pay-as-you-go public scheme, occupational schemes and voluntary individual schemes. The review also covers the first layer of old-age social protection in Korea. This review is the eighth in the series of OECD Reviews of Pension Systems.
  • 8-February-2021

    English

    Inclusive Growth Review of Korea - Creating Opportunities for All

    In recent years Korea has stepped up efforts to reduce inequalities in recognition that a fairer economic model is also the most sustainable one. In order to support this new policy direction, the OECD has carried out novel analysis of inclusive growth building on its Framework for Policy Action, developed by the OECD to improve the prospects of the groups left behind. The Inclusive Growth Review of Korea applies, for the first time, the Framework at the national level. Using a dashboard of indicators, the Framework presents policy recommendations to sustain and more equitably share the gains of economic growth by investing in people left behind, supporting business dynamism and inclusive labour markets, and building efficient and responsive governments. In addition, the Inclusive Growth Review of Korea finds that digitalisation risks to compound the disparities of Korean labour markets, and calls for renewed efforts to reduce the lack of opportunities for up- and re-skilling of the working-age population (Chapter 2). To improve the business environment, Korea should address the unbalanced growth across sectors and firm size and unequal distribution of productivity gains across population groups (Chapter 3).
  • 22-December-2020

    English

    How reliable are social safety nets? - Value and accessibility in situations of acute economic need

    Social protection systems use a range of entitlement criteria. First-tier support typically requires contributions or past employment in many countries, while safety net benefits are granted on the basis of need. In a context of volatile and uncertain labour markets, careful and continuous monitoring of the effectiveness of income support is a key input into an evidence-based policy process. This paper proposes a novel empirical method for monitoring the accessibility and levels of safety net benefits. It focusses on minimum-income benefits (MIB) and other non-contributory transfers and relies on data on the amounts of cash support that individuals in need receive in practice. Results show that accessibility and benefit levels differ enormously across countries – for instance, in 2015/16, more than four out of five low-income workless one-person households received MIB in Australia, France and the United Kingdom, compared to only one in five in Greece, Italy and Korea, three countries that have since sought to strengthen aspects of safety-net provisions.
  • 31-March-2020

    English

    OECD Reviews of Public Health: Korea - A Healthier Tomorrow

    This review assesses Korea's public health system, highlights areas of strength and weakness, and makes a number of recommendations for improvement. The review examines Korea's public health system architecture, and how well policies are responding to population health challenges, including the growing burden of chronic disease, and resulting pressures on the health system. In particular, the review assesses Korea’s policies to prevent harmful alcohol use, and the risks and opportunities around public health genomics in Korea, which is both a growing field in the health sector, and a booming commercial industry. The review also examines Korea's exposure to public health emergencies, and capacity to respond to emergencies as and when they occur.
  • 28-October-2019

    English

    Rejuvenating Korea: Policies for a Changing Society

    Korean families are changing fast. While birth rates remain low, Koreans are marrying and starting a family later than ever before, if at all. Couple-with-children households, the dominant household type in Korea until recently, will soon make up fewer than one quarter of all households. These changes will have a profound effect on Korea’s future. Among other things, the Korean labour force is set to decline by about 2.5 million workers by 2040, with potential major implications for economic performance and the sustainability of public finances. Since the early 2000s, public policy has changed to help parents reconcile work and family commitments: Korea has developed a comprehensive formal day-care and kindergarten system with enrolment rates that are now on par with the Nordic countries. Korea also has one year of paid parental leave for both parents, but only about 25% of mothers and 5% of fathers use it, as workplace cultures are often not conducive to parents, especially fathers, taking leave. Cultural change will take time, but this review suggests there also is a need for additional labour market, education and social policy reform to help Koreans achieve both work and family aspirations, and contribute to the rejuvenation of Korean society.
  • 27-March-2019

    Korean, PDF, 848kb

    Society at a Glance 2019 - How does Korea compare? in Korean

    This country highlight puts the spotlight on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people: their numbers, their economic situation and well-being and policies to improve LGBT inclusivity. It also includes a special chapter on people’s perceptions of social and economic risks and presents a selection of social indicators.

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  • 27-March-2019

    English, PDF, 692kb

    Society at a Glance 2019 - How does Korea compare?

    This country highlight puts the spotlight on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people: their numbers, their economic situation and well-being and policies to improve LGBT inclusivity. It also includes a special chapter on people’s perceptions of social and economic risks and presents a selection of social indicators.

    Also AvailableEgalement disponible(s)
  • 24-October-2018

    English

    Working Better with Age: Korea

    Korea faces unique ageing and employment challenges. On the one hand, it will experience much faster population ageing than any other OECD country: the old-age dependency ratio (population aged 65+ over population aged 15-64), for example, is projected to increase from 20% today to around 70% in 2050. On the other hand, employment rates of older workers are already very high: in the age group 65-69, for example, 45% of all Koreans work compared with an OECD average of 25% (2016 data). However, most older people in Korea end up in poor-quality jobs after ending their core career in their early 50s, with low and insecure earnings and little or no social protection. This report looks at the reasons for the current labour market and income situation of older workers in Korea, especially the role of employment and employer practices. It examines the best ways forward for policy makers and employers to increase the quality of life and work of older workers whilst maintaining their high employment rate.
  • 18-April-2018

    English

    Housing Dynamics in Korea - Building Inclusive and Smart Cities

    Housing in Korea has been part of the government policy development agenda for the past three decades contributing to reducing the historical housing shortage and improving the quality of dwellings. Despite its achievements, Korea now faces a housing affordability challenge as prices are too high for several social groups (i.e. newly wedded), owner occupancy levels are decreasing, and social housing is struggling to meet demand. Korea has a complex social housing system largely focused on low-income households, who still suffer from housing poverty in terms of housing stability, affordability and quality. A holistic view on housing policy to promote a more inclusive society and sustainable economic growth is needed. To overcome the current housing challenge requires expanding the network of public housing providers by including the private and community sectors that could alleviate the government’s financial burden. Korea is linking housing and urban regeneration strategies to respond to the complex challenges of social inclusion, job creation, housing and economic revitalisation. Korea has been at the forefront of smart city development for more than a decade, which has brought benefits to Korean cities such as integrated transport systems, and it is now committed to applying the concept as a vehicle for inclusive growth.
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