취업연계급여제도(EITC)로서의 사회보험료 감면정책 －OECD 국가들의 예와 한국에 대한 시사점－ = Social Insurance Contribution Reduction as an EITC measure: Lessons from the Experiences of OECD Countries

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Social insurance contribution reduction for low-paid workers can be a good policy measure to promote employment of those workers and to enlarge the effective coverage of the social insurance system. This paper discusses the cautions that should be taken in the framework of the introduction of such a measure. For this purpose, this paper examines various schemes already put in place in OECD countries, and reviews the evaluations for those schemes. The social insurance contribution reduction scheme can be designed in explicitly targeting the low-skilled workers or in a more implicit way through the design itself of the social insurance scheme. First of all, while it is better to define narrowly the targeted worker groups, appropriate measures should be accompanied to attenuated the perverse effects such as “stigmatizing effects” and “substitution effects”. Second, the measures should be designed in considering working hours for an effective targeting. Third, when taking account of working hours, effective measurement of hourly wage and monitoring of working hours are important. Forth, in order to reduce the risk of “low-pay trap”, the income ranges where the reduction rate decreases should be carefully designed. Finally, it is important to make the reduction schemes permanent rather than temporary.