"The Law Guarantees the Pension, So Don't Worry" — Is There a Single Young Person Who Would Nod Along? (Shin Dong-A, 2025.03.19.)
2026.01.01
- #연금특위
(2025 — this piece was contributed to Shin Dong-A just before the amendment to the National Pension Act passed the National Assembly on March 20.) [Pension Reform Proposal] Accepting an Income Replacement Rate of ‘43%,’ the Opposition Puts Forward ‘Writing the Payment Guarantee into Law’ ● The Opposition Concedes on the Income Replacement Rate, Sets Three Conditions ● Even If the People Power Party Proposal Is Accepted, the 2050 Unfunded Pension Liability Will Still Be 6159 Trillion Won ● Not a ‘Clause in the Law’ but the ‘Fund’s Existence’ Guarantees the National Pension ● “Pension Reform Without an Automatic Adjustment Mechanism Is a Transparent Sham” A 1-Percentage-Point Gap Widens to 299 Trillion Won After 25 Years Both the ruling and opposition parties agreed that “National Pension reform is necessary.” They also reached agreement on raising the contribution rate from the current 9% to 13%. However, as opinions diverged over how much to raise the income replacement rate — the ‘money received’ — the National Pension reform bill drifted in the National Assembly for a long time. The People Power Party has argued that the income replacement rate should be raised to 43%, while the Democratic Party has pushed back, calling for 44%. The current income replacement rate is 41.5%, and it is designed to be lowered by 0.5 percentage points each year until it reaches 40% by 2028. As pension reform discussions have spun their wheels for years, citizens’ frustration is also growing. Voices have even emerged saying, “It’s only a 1-percentage-point difference, so why can’t one side just concede?” But the situation is not that simple. A 1-percentage-point difference in the income replacement rate could later turn into a bill no one saw coming. According to an analysis by the Pension Future Forum, of which the author is a member, if the current system continues, the National Pension’s unfunded liability is estimated to reach 6,332 trillion won as of 2050. The unfunded liability is ‘the shortfall against the pension amount that National Pension insured persons are due to receive’ — in effect, a debt charged to future generations. If the National Pension is overhauled under the People Power Party proposal, the 2050 unfunded liability would fall by 173 trillion won from the current trajectory, to 6,159 trillion won. Under the Democratic Party proposal, by contrast, it would rise by 126 trillion won from the current trajectory. In other words, a 1-percentage-point difference in the income replacement rate widens into a 299-trillion-won difference after 25 years. https://n.news.naver.com/article/262/0000018219?sid=100
