In South Korea, laws and policies have been enacted to protect workers from age discrimination. But some do the opposite, punishing people for getting older.
Public and private sector employers can adopt a mandatory retirement age of 60 or older under South Korean law. Many employers have opted for this policy, and it applies to workers regardless of their skill level. Moreover, employers do not need to justify a mandatory retirement age and workers cannot challenge it as age discrimination.
In other words, if someone has been working a job for years and are at the top of their skill level, they could be forced to leave once they hit age 60 or another designated age.
>> Read new Human Rights Watch research documenting the toll of age discrimination and ageist policies on older workers.
Employers can also reduce a worker’s pay as they near the mandatory retirement age, causing further layers of financial and mental harm.
And while South Korean law requires supporting older workers’ re-employment after retirement, HRW research found that re-employment programs often force older workers into lower-paid, risky work that younger workers do not want.
The aim of mandatory retirement and salary reduction policies is to keep older workers in their main jobs until at least age 60 and better finance the employment of younger workers.
But at what cost to those getting pushed from their jobs? With South Korea’s poor social safety net compounding one’s loss of income, what should be the benefits of retirement often look more like a punishment.
