Incentives Proposed for Employing Disabled Persons in Workplaces with Fewer Than 50 Employees

Announcement of Measures to Promote Employment of Persons with Disabilities

The appearance of a person with a disability working by participating in the employment project for people with disabilities. (Photo by Asia Economy DB)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Going forward, the government will provide incentives to companies with fewer than 50 employees that hire people with disabilities. This means that even workplaces without a legal obligation to employ people with disabilities will be compensated based on the number of disabled employees they hire.

On the 26th, the government held the 19th Job Committee meeting and announced the "Measures to Promote Employment of People with Disabilities." The committee was attended by Kim Yong-gi, Vice Chairman of the Job Committee, and Lee Jae-gap, Minister of Employment and Labor, among others.

First, incentives will be expanded to promote and maintain new employment of people with disabilities in the private sector. For small workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, which are not legally required to employ people with disabilities under the "Act on the Promotion of Employment and Vocational Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons," plans are being made to provide incentives when they newly hire people with disabilities. Even if they employ only 1 to 2 people with disabilities, which is below the legal mandatory employment rate of 3.1%, they will receive subsidies. However, specific support amounts and eligible targets have not yet been determined. A Ministry of Employment and Labor official stated, "After consulting with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, we will be able to determine the specific timing of the system introduction and the number of new hires."

Additionally, a "buffer job model" will be developed to support employment of people with severe disabilities. This system is benchmarked after Sweden's "SAMHALL." The government creates a type of direct employment, initially hiring people with disabilities, and then matches them to transfer to private companies as experienced workers. A Ministry of Employment and Labor official explained, "This is similar to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s ‘Vocational Rehabilitation Facilities for People with Disabilities’ project, but unlike the welfare ministry’s project, this system features matching with private companies."

Other plans include ▲expanding the number of standard workplaces for people with disabilities to 90 (up from 75 last year) ▲providing additional incentives to companies that hire people with disabilities as regular employees ▲expanding direct employment for people with disabilities to 27,500 next year (this year’s target is about 25,000).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.