Council members in remote areas cover more ground for less pay
From the Punch Bowl and Anguk Peace Bell in the north to the Suin campsite in the south, the distance across Yanggu-gun in Gangwon Province stretches about 50 kilometers by road.
Those are the key points that seven Yanggu-gun council members must cover in their work.
Yanggu-gun spans 702 square kilometers — larger than Seoul, which covers 605 square kilometers.
Seoul, by contrast, has 436 district council members covering a smaller total area.
Area alone does not tell the whole story, but it is easy to see that Yanggu council members must invest considerably more time and effort to reach every corner of the county and gather residents' views.
Reflecting the opinions of Yanggu residents, the county council's annual legislative allowance — comprising a monthly stipend and an activity allowance — has been set at 46.2 million won ($34,400) for 2027. That is below the starting salary at a large conglomerate and roughly on par with entry-level pay at a mid-sized company.
Across the country's 227 basic-level councils, the highest annual legislative pay reaches the upper 50 million won range — paid to council members in metropolitan-city districts — while the lowest falls in the low 40 million won range for members serving sparsely populated, fiscally weak rural counties. The national average sits in the upper 40 million won range, and Yanggu's figure comes in slightly below that average.
In general, basic-level council members receive 60 to 65 percent of what their counterpart metropolitan council members earn.
According to Yanggu-gun Council on Wednesday, a recently convened legislative allowance review committee incorporated the results of a public opinion survey to finalize the pay for members of the 10th Yanggu-gun Council.
Based on the survey results, the committee set the monthly stipend for 2027 at 2.35 million won, completing the pay-setting process for the 10th Yanggu-gun Council.
The committee surveyed 500 residents from Oct. 8 to Oct. 14.
The results showed that 50.6 percent of respondents considered the annual legislative allowance of 46.2 million won "appropriate," and the committee finalized the monthly stipend after a comprehensive review of the findings.
Accordingly, members of the 10th Yanggu-gun Council will receive a monthly stipend of 2.35 million won and a monthly activity allowance of 1.5 million won starting in 2027, for a combined annual legislative allowance of 46.2 million won.
From 2028 onward, the monthly stipend will be adjusted in line with the previous year's civil servant pay raise rate.
Meanwhile, some argue that council members in remote, sparsely populated counties with large geographic areas actually need more activity funding than their counterparts in large or mid-sized cities, since they must travel farther to reach residents and gather opinions across a wider territory.
Critics also say it is problematic that council members in wealthier jurisdictions — such as metropolitan-city district councils — receive higher pay, while those serving poorer, more remote counties receive less. For context, the annualized national minimum wage comes to 26 million won.
abc@heraldcorp.com
