Welcome to BASE21

Government employees in Korea have long been accustomed to a relatively low but more stable wage system than their private sector counterparts, in which their salaries rose steadily with their years of service, but this could soon change.

The Office for Government Policy Coordination said Friday that it has set new wage standards for 43 government-run research institutes, allocating grants and subsidies to these organizations in accordance with their research output.

It has conducted an evaluation of the overall research results of these organizations, placing the Korea Institute of Science and Technology at the top of the ladder and the Korea Institute of Industry and Technology Information at the bottom.

An official said that the central government plans to target the institutes that have produced insufficient results by slashing the bonuses that make up about 30 percent of their annual salaries.

The latest move is a departure from past practices, in which the government focused on rewarding exemplary officials, but took no steps to punish underachievers, analysts said.

So far, officials of director-general or higher level have been given incentive bonuses based on their performance, but the system did little to motivate government employees, as the differences in pay were negligible, they said.

"From now on, the wage gap between excellent and poor performers could widen to as much as 10 million won ($9,000) a year," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

If and when these measures are implemented in full, the analysts said, officials in other areas of the government could face similar changes in their take-home wages.

The government plans to gradually expand this policy from government-controlled organizations to all officialdom within two to three years.

If past experiences are any indication, however, the full implementation of this discriminating pay scheme may be hampered by strong resistance from government workers, the observers said.
(Korea Herald )