Incheon Social Welfare Facility Lower-Level Staff Base Salary 2.99 Million Won... Wage System to Be Overhauled

Incheon Social Service Institute Announces Final Research Results for August

Incheon Social Service Agency is revising the wage system for lower-level workers at social welfare facilities in the region.

The Incheon Social Service Agency plans to hold a mid-term report meeting on the 13th ahead of the announcement of the "Research on Improvement Measures for the Wage System of Social Welfare Facility Workers" scheduled for August.

The study targets lower-level and non-management positions, including senior staff, social welfare workers, management, technical staff, clerical staff, and medical personnel. This includes managers, security guards, administrative staff, cooks, sanitation workers, special education teachers, clinical psychologists, nurses, nursing assistants, and physical therapists.

The wage system challenges are set by years of service and will be approached step-by-step according to urgency. Additionally, measures to eliminate wage gaps between social welfare workers and non-social welfare workers, as well as wage disparities based on job roles, will be developed. The wage level is based on 100% of civil servant wages.

According to a survey of 526 social welfare facilities and 3,917 workers, the average years of service for lower-level workers is 9.8 years, with an average basic salary just under 3 million KRW at 2,997,220 KRW.

Medical personnel have an average of 12.7 years of service but a basic salary of only 3,173,000 KRW, clerical staff have an average step of 7.9 years with a basic salary of 2,664,000 KRW, and technical staff have an average of 7.4 years with a basic salary of 2,422,000 KRW.

Last year, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced that the average monthly salary for regular workers in the health and social welfare sector was 4,160,563 KRW.

The starting salary for new lower-level employees is even more challenging. Managers receive 2,032,100 KRW, and technical staff receive 2,016,000 KRW, both below the monthly income of 2,077,892 KRW for a single-person household at 100% of the median income this year.

A life instructor is engaging in play activities with residents with severe disabilities at 'Michuhol Purunae,' a facility for people with severe disabilities under the Incheon Social Service Center.
[Photo by Incheon Social Service Center]

The increase in salary by years of service or rank is also low. When a clerical director moves from step 1 to step 2, the salary increases by 79,100 KRW, whereas for technical staff, it is about 22,900 KRW. Also, when promoted from section chief to director, the increase is 188,500 KRW, but when promoted from technical staff to manager, the monthly salary increases by only 21,500 KRW.

Lee Seon-jeong, a research committee member at the Incheon Social Service Agency in charge of the study, said, "Incheon City has recently worked hard to improve the treatment of social welfare facility workers, creating a unified wage system to minimize wage disparities despite the diverse types of social welfare facilities. We expect that revising the wage system for relatively disadvantaged lower-level workers will narrow the gap between social welfare and non-social welfare workers and reduce the number of social workers leaving Incheon after taking their first steps in the social welfare field."

This study is a follow-up to the social welfare worker treatment improvement survey and unified wage system study conducted by the Incheon Social Service Agency from 2019 to 2021, and the Incheon-type unified wage public-private council was established last year to promote this effort.

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