Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service launches employment and industrial accident insurance enrollment drive

The Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service will run an employment and industrial accident insurance enrollment promotion period from July through September to close coverage gaps in the social insurance system.

The agency plans to publicize the Duru Nuri social insurance premium support program, which covers up to 80% of premiums, and will waive late-reporting fines for artists and platform workers who voluntarily enroll during the period.

The agency said Tuesday it was launching the initiative to expand insurance coverage for vulnerable groups — including part-time workers, platform workers (service providers) and artists — who are prone to falling outside the social insurance net. It plans to run intensive outreach campaigns to encourage employers to report voluntarily while ensuring workers receive social insurance benefits in a timely manner.

The agency will focus on promoting the Duru Nuri social insurance premium support program to small businesses hesitant to enroll due to premium costs. The program subsidizes 80% of national pension and employment insurance premiums for qualifying workplaces, and as of the end of last year had provided a total of 170 billion won ($110 million) in premium support to about 1.8 million workers.

During the enrollment promotion period, fines for late reporting will be waived when artists and platform workers voluntarily report their own employment insurance eligibility. The agency will also actively inform workers that artists and platform workers may file their own eligibility reports even if their employers do not. Under current law, employers who fail to report or submit false reports on insurance eligibility face fines of up to 3 million won.

Alongside online outreach, the agency plans to operate mobile consultation booths in areas with high concentrations of small businesses to provide in-person social insurance enrollment counseling.

The agency will also promote the income-based employment and industrial accident insurance system overhaul scheduled to take effect in 2027. The reform's centerpiece is changing the employment insurance enrollment threshold from the current "60 or more monthly working hours" to "monthly income of 800,000 won or more" (tentative), and basing premium calculations on the current year's income rather than the previous year's average pay. The changes are intended to strengthen the social safety net for very short-hour workers, so-called "multi-jobbers" and other low-income workers.

Park Jong-gil, president of the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, said employment and industrial accident insurance represent "the minimum social safety net that everyone who works should be able to enjoy." He added that ahead of the 2027 transition to an income-based system, the agency would "do its utmost through this enrollment promotion period to reduce insurance coverage gaps and build a society that respects labor."