South Korea 's age-based employment laws and policies discriminate against older workers, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The country's inadequate social security system compounds the challenges that older people face.
The 72-page report, "Punished for Getting Older: South Korea's Age-based Policies and Older Workers' Rights," documents how three age-based employment laws and policies - the mandatory retirement age of 60 or older, the "peak wage" system, and re-employment policies - harm older workers, and how inadequate social security programs exacerbate their situation.
"South Korea's laws and policies to protect older workers from age discrimination actually do the exact opposite," said Bridget Sleap, senior researcher on the rights of older people at Human Rights Watch. "They deny older workers the opportunity to continue working in their main jobs, pay them less, and push them into lower-paid, precarious work, all just because of their age. The government should stop punishing workers for getting older."
Between February and September 2024, Human Rights Watch interviewed 34 South Korean workers, ages 42 to 72, who worked in Seoul in the public and private sectors. Human Rights Watch also consulted 41 South Korean researchers, union workers, a journalist, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and reviewed national legislation and reports in Korean and English by the government, academics, workers' associations, the media, and international institutions.
The South Korean law prohibiting age discrimination in employment, the Act on Prohibition of Age Discrimination in Employment and Elderly Employment Promotion, allows public and private sector employers to adopt a mandatory retirement age of 60 or older, regardless of a worker's job skills. The use of mandatory retirement ages is widespread in the public sector and large companies with more than 300 employees.
Human Rights Watch found that the "peak wage" system, which permits employers to reduce older workers' wages during the three to five years preceding their mandatory retirement, causes financial and mental harm and is based on an ageist stereotype. The system can negatively affect other financial entitlements as well, such as pension contributions, severance pay, and unemployment payments.
The employer of a 59-year-old man interviewed mandates that he must retire in a year. When he retires, he will earn just 52 percent of what he earned at 55. "It is discrimination because our income has been reduced because of our age," he said. "It is not justified."
Human Rights Watch found that being forced to retire also harmed older workers' mental health and well-being.
A 59-year-old nurse, who will be forced to retire at 60 after working for 36 years, said: "I can't imagine myself being out of this organization. It would feel like standing by myself on a windy road."
Under international human rights law, treating people differently based on a prohibited ground, such as age, must pass a justification test to ensure the treatment has a legitimate aim and is both proportionate and necessary. But under South Korean law, mandatory retirement ages do not require justification, and older workers cannot challenge them as discrimination.
Human Rights Watch found that South Korea's age-based laws and policies do constitute discrimination. The mandatory retirement age and peak wage system's respective aims are to keep older workers in their main jobs until at least age 60, and to finance the employment of younger workers. However, the harm to older workers outweighs any benefits.
The government could use less harmful methods to achieve its aims, including professional development to enhance older workers' skills and subsidizing employers to hire younger workers. While these policies affect all older workers, they have a disproportionate impact on women, who often have less opportunity over the course of their careers to achieve seniority, high salaries, and ample savings and pensions.
Under the domestic law prohibiting age discrimination in employment, local and state governments in South Korea have a responsibility to support older workers' re-employment after retirement from their main jobs. This is not a solution though, as Human Rights Watch found that existing re-employment programs force older workers into lower-paid, more precarious work.
On average, workers 60 and older earn 29 percent less than younger workers, based on government data. Moreover, re-employed older workers are concentrated in low-paid occupations, such as security guards and care workers, that younger people do not want. Such age-based "occupational segregation" is a form of discrimination.
These problems are exacerbated by an inadequate social security system that does not meet human rights standards, Human Rights Watch said. People forced to retire at 60 are only entitled to an unemployment benefit for up to 270 days but may wait up to five years before they are eligible at age 65 for the National Old Age Pension or Basic Pension. In 2023, only 40 percent of people 60 and older received a National Old Age Pension.
South Korea is obligated under international human rights law to ensure that everyone can enjoy their rights to nondiscrimination, work, and social security, regardless of age. The South Korean government should abolish the mandatory retirement age of 60 or older and peak wage system. It should also review re-employment and social security programs to ensure that older people have equal access to just, favorable, and meaningful employment opportunities and at least a living wage.
"South Korea's age-based employment laws and policies discriminate against older people and future generations," Sleap said. "The government needs to adopt a comprehensive anti-discrimination law to fight all forms of discrimination, including age discrimination and ageism."
