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S. Korea to boost youth employment by offering tax benefits, lowering elderly’s wages

July 20, 2015

South Korea revealed on Monday that it will be implementing a new system to give a boost to the ailing employment figures of the country’s younger job seekers.

Those aged between 15 and 29 are experiencing a 10.2 percent unemployment rate, which is significantly higher than the nation’s average at 3.9 percent.

The government chose to go with a number of different solutions including tax benefits and wage peak systems aimed at companies to encourage them to hire from the previously mentioned demographic.

“In order to spur the private sector to hire more people on a long-term basis, the government will give tax exemptions to companies that hire more people and encourage firms to adopt wage peaks,” economic policymaker Choi Kyung-hwan told students and faculty at the Korea University of Technology and Education according to Yonhap News Agency.

The proposed wage peak system would taper off wages for older workers just prior to retirement while also suggesting that those in certain professions, such as schoolteachers, retire earlier to create more positions for younger people.

Lastly, Choi stressed the importance of acquiring experience through internships and as a result, the government will begin a new internship program poised at creating 100,000 opportunities at larger-sized companies.