Korea officially became an Aging Society in 2000; this means 7 percent of the population are over 65 years old. Further, it is predicted the number of people who are over 65 years old will eventually reach 14.4% of the total population.
No country has...
Korea officially became an Aging Society in 2000; this means 7 percent of the population are over 65 years old. Further, it is predicted the number of people who are over 65 years old will eventually reach 14.4% of the total population.
No country has ever seen such a rapid development into an aging society as Korea has. To what factors does Korea owe this dubious distinction? The causes of this trend are due to life spans rapidly increasing while, in Korea, the birth rates have continually fallen to far below levels of population replacement. As a direct result, Korea has seen a very quick transition into an aging society.
As a society that is aging, we seen a trend that has workers who are getting older, although it varies somewhat depending on the type of industry, the size of the company, etc. Although the speed that Korea is aging is increasing very rapidly, the age limit for labor is an average of 55.6 years. Further, for most workers, there is a gap until age 60 years when they become pension eligible. In addition, the vast majority of Koreans have no life insurance at this age due to a variety of reasons, including costs. As a result of these factors many companies in Korea are attempting to introduce the wage peak system in order to reduce labor costs, as well as to guarantee employment.
In this dissertation, I examined the effects and efficiency of the wage peak system by analysing cases from many companies in Japan and Korea. The results of this research shows the effects on both public and private companies. Also, the research showed the differences between the types of systems, for example, guaranteeing age limits or extending hiring systems. These methods are systematically compared to each to examine cases of success or failure, as well as social-organizational and personal parameters.
I never believed that the wage peak system was the only method to be utilized to resolve the problems of aging societies. The goal of policy towards aging must be that anyone willing and having the abilities to work must be able to do so. The worker has the right to have a job regardless of age. When we consider the present situation we can see that it has to be progressed in a series of steps that have increased working age limits to ages 60 and 65, and it seems to be on the verge of increasing again. In this respect, the wage peak system is only a beginning.
However, according to the cases I studied, the wage peak system is currently one of the best policies addressing this situation, as it helps to guarantee labor stability and prevent early retirement in many companies, regardless of being a public or private company.
In addition, most Korean companies utilizing the wage peak system have also partially extending hiring through use of the guaranteeing of age limits method. On the other hand, most companies in Japan have incorporated methods that have extending hiring.
Guarateeing age limit methods are good for reducing labor costs, creating new hiring and basic hiring stability, but if private companies force workers use age 50 or so as the retirement or wage peak age, it will likely cause a decline in productivity.
On the other hand, by using extending hiring methods, there is a effect on guaranteing hiring, as it causes increased labor costs, less new hiring, and less energy expended by the company.
In conclusion, the wage peak system has positive effects in reducing wage problems and job transferring, while it also helps in hiring stability for the workforce. As well, if the company has no alternative but to accept the wage peak system, it must do so while taking into consideration its own structure, labor and property.