"Public Officials Earning More Than Ministers Emerging"…Salary Caps Lifted for Medical and Aerospace Experts

Significant Reduction in Minimum Service Years for Civil Servant Promotion
Minimum Service Years from Grade 9 to Grade 3 Reduced from 16 to 11 Years

The government will abolish the salary cap standard to allow private sector talented individuals to autonomously set their annual salaries. Additionally, the minimum required years for promotion will be significantly shortened so that capable talents can be promoted regardless of their years of service.

On the 10th, the Ministry of Personnel Innovation announced the "2nd Comprehensive Plan to Enhance Flexibility and Autonomy in Departmental Personnel Management," which focuses on significantly improving the civil servant personnel system and operational methods so that each ministry can autonomously select and assign the right candidates in a timely manner.

Under the current system, when hiring term-based professional civil servants at grade 4 or higher, annual salaries could be autonomously set up to 150% of the base salary (200% for doctors), and any amount beyond that required consultation with the Ministry of Personnel Innovation. This system has been revised to allow autonomous salary setting. Kim Seung-ho, head of the Ministry of Personnel Innovation, explained, "In fields such as medical care, IT, and aerospace, we are moving toward abolishing even prior consultations with the Ministry of Personnel Innovation," adding, "It is possible to receive a higher salary than the minister of the affiliated ministry depending on ability."

The consultation procedure with the Ministry of Personnel Innovation for transfers to similar job positions in other agencies or regions will also be abolished, and each ministry will be allowed to relax the transfer restriction period when transferring to similar job positions if necessary. In particular, standards for position management and tie-breaker criteria for promotion candidate lists will be revised to expand the scope of autonomous judgment by ministries.

Procedures and regulations will also be simplified to enable timely selection and placement of talent. In this regard, the minimum required years for promotion, which previously took 16 years from grade 9 to grade 3, will be shortened to 11 years to allow promotion regardless of years of service. To timely recruit private sector talent, hiring procedures such as competency evaluations will be greatly simplified, and ministries will be able to autonomously determine the subjects of written exams for experienced hires.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

To enable each ministry to manage the entire hiring process from application to acceptance quickly, accurately, and transparently, an integrated recruitment system for administrative agencies will be established, and the manual process of experienced hiring procedures in each ministry will be conducted through the system starting next year.

Additionally, a legal basis will be established to designate a civil servant to act on behalf of an affiliated civil servant who is dispatched or sent on a business trip for disaster response for a certain period or longer, apart from leave or leave of absence. This is to strengthen the prevention of work gaps. Furthermore, committees established by laws, enforcement decrees, and regulations for various personnel operations will be consolidated or abolished to improve personnel management efficiency.

Director Kim explained the purpose, saying, "To become an agile and flexible government, each ministry must be able to use the right talent in the right place at the right time under autonomous judgment and responsibility."

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