Punished for Getting Older, Daily Brief 9 July, 2025.

South Korea’s government punishes workers for getting older. 

That’s the stark conclusion of a new Human Rights Watch report examining how South Korea’s age-based employment laws and policies discriminate against older workers. 

The system is rigged against older people in three essential ways. 

First, there’s mandatory retirement. South Korean law allows public and private sector employers to adopt a mandatory retirement age of 60 or older. The use of mandatory retirement ages is widespread in the public sector and large companies. It doesn’t matter what your skills and experience are, if your employer says you’re done, then you’re done. 

Second, South Korea has something called the “peak wage” system. This permits employers to reduce older workers’ wages during the three to five years preceding their mandatory retirement.  

For example, the employer of a 59-year-old man we interviewed has said he must retire in a year. When he retires at age 60, he will earn just 52 percent of what he earned at age 55. 

This impacts not only a person’s immediate earnings. It can negatively affect other financial entitlements as well, such as pension contributions, severance pay, and unemployment payments. 

Third, re-employment policies make matters even worse. Re-employed older workers are concentrated in low-paid occupations that younger people don’t want, such as security guards and care workers. Such age-based “occupational segregation” is a form of discrimination.  

To top it all off, the social security system is inadequate and does not meet human rights standards.  

People forced to retire at 60 are only entitled to an unemployment benefit for up to 270 days. However, they 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’s laws and policies deny older workers the opportunity to continue working in their main jobs. They get paid less and get pushed into lower-paid, precarious work, all just because of their age.  

The government should stop punishing workers for getting older.