[Editorial] The Government Employees Pension's 33-Year Deficit: Reform Can No Longer Be Deferred (April 28, 2026)

The Government Employees Pension has been mired in a chronic deficit swamp for more than 30 years since it first recorded a shortfall in 1993. Although the number of contributors to the Government Employees Pension roughly doubled between 1982 and 2024, the number of beneficiaries surged approximately 186-fold over the same period, with beneficiaries now comprising 53.8% of total contributors — a rapid and unsustainable expansion. This has translated into a massive cumulative deficit. Consequently, the state has been subsidizing the shortfall in the Government Employees Pension since 2001. According to the National Assembly Budget Office, public funds disbursed to cover the Government Employees Pension deficit totaled 7.4712 trillion won on a fiscal year 2024 settlement basis.

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It is inequitable for the National Assembly Special Committee on Pension Reform to deliberate solely on National Pension reform while leaving untouched the Government Employees Pension, into which enormous sums of public funds are already being poured.

A social consensus body for pension reform must now be established, and structural reform proposals — including the integration of the National Pension with other occupational pensions such as the Private School Employees Pension and the Military Pension, and the introduction of a "fiscal automatic stabilizer" to reduce the deficit — must be placed on the table.

Pension reform entails pain, but it is a task that must be undertaken immediately for the sake of the nation and the future of generations to come.

https://n.news.naver.com/article/020/0003715972?sid=110