Kim Won: "Government Must Revive Support Policies for Young Employees at SMEs"

Tomorrow Savings Plan Scaled Back, Government Funding Plummets
Long-Term Employment Incentives and Asset-Building Ladder Collapse

Won Kim, member of the Democratic Party of Korea.

There have been criticisms that support policies for young employees at small and medium-sized enterprises have significantly regressed under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

According to audit data submitted by Assemblyman Won Kim of the Democratic Party of Korea (Mokpo, South Jeolla Province) from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the 24th, the government funding for the representative youth asset-building program, the "Youth Employee Tomorrow Savings Plan," decreased by 62% from 313.4 billion won in 2021 to 120.2 billion won in 2024. This year, new government funding has effectively been suspended, with only 8.5 billion won allocated in the first half of the year to existing participants.

The Tomorrow Savings Plan was a program where, if a young employee deposited 7.2 million won over five years, the company and the government would each contribute an additional 12 million won and 10.8 million won, respectively, allowing the participant to accumulate around 30 million won. However, under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, the program was restructured as the "Tomorrow Savings Plus," limiting eligibility to young employees at manufacturing and construction companies with fewer than 50 employees (annual salary of 36 million won or less), and shortening the contribution period to three years. As a result, the total amount receivable has been reduced to approximately 18 million won.

In addition, the "SME Employee Preferential Savings Plan," introduced last year, removed the age restriction, thereby diluting its focus as a youth-centered policy. While companies are required to contribute an additional 20% of the deposit, there is no government support, resulting in a youth participation rate of only 30%.

Assemblyman Kim criticized, "Due to the reduction in government support, the number of new youth participants in 2023 was only 5,465, which is just a quarter of the previous level. The incentive for young people to stay long-term at SMEs is disappearing, and the ladder for asset-building is collapsing." He further emphasized, "The government must expand public funding once again and strengthen youth-exclusive programs."

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