Stronger pension package named in disparity
It was revealed that civil servants receive about 150 million won (US$162,000) more than regular office workers in net lifetime income. Professor Kim Sang-ho of Kwandong University said at a forum on the pension system for government employees that "the gap of lifetime income between civil servants and workers at private companies with similar academic background and age who were first hired in 2000 is estimated at about 156 million won." The forum was hosted by Rep. Kim Ki-hyun of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) on December 14. The total lifetime income of lower-mid level government workers who were hired in 2000 was projected at nearly 2.161 billion won, combining employment income of 1.427 billion won, public-sector pension earnings of 619 million won, and a retirement allowance of 71 million won. Subtracting mandatory pension payments, their net lifetime income is only slightly lower at 2.027 billion won.In the case of nongovernmental office workers hired in 2000, their overall lifetime income was an average of 1.934 billion won. But they have to pay an average of about 263 million won into the national pension system, as compared to public servants' payments of only 70 million won on average into their system, which is separate. As a result, the net lifetime income of general workers was about 1.871 billion won, more than 150 million won less than that of the government employees. For his statistics, Professor Kim assumed that workers receive pension benefits until they are 82 years old, and their wives get the remaining pension wages after their death. "For the purpose of my estimates, I made an assumption that nongovernmental workers are employed between the ages of 26 and 58 to match the figures up to those of public workers. However, the income gap will be bigger than this, due to the fact that nongovernmental workers usually retire earlier than 58."
