This year’s 9th grade competition rate is the lowest in 30 years
“Wages lower than the minimum wage” sigh
Civil servant union “Guaranteed living wage”
“Honestly, it’s very frustrating. Now I have to start a family and I’m thinking of getting married, but I’m running into a lot of walls of reality.”
Mo Baek, an 8th grade civil servant in Changwon, who is in charge of over 1,000 senior citizens living alone, said: In an interview with MBC recently, Baek said this, saying that his monthly real income was only regarding 1.8 million won.
The situation of Jeong-mo, a 7-year civil servant, is no different from Baek’s. In June, Jung received 2,033,790 won, including his basic salary of 1.9 million won and allowances. Jung said that he felt a sense of self-belief, ‘Why did you prepare for the civil service exam these days?’
Similar concerns of civil servants are often found in the blind community blind for office workers.
A 7th grade civil servant captured the pay stub and wrote, “Please save us. At least adjust the inflation rate.” According to his pay stub, his pre-tax salary in April was regarding 2.55 million won including various allowances. After tax, etc., the actual amount received is regarding 1,990,000 won.
Other office workers who saw this showed reactions such as “That’s enough to live alone”, “It’s essential to have a dual income”, “I can’t send my child to a private academy”, and “Why one public servant?”
The popularity of civil servants, once considered a ‘dream job’ among the younger generation, is waning.
According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Innovation, the competition rate for 9th-grade civil servants this year is 29.2 to 1. After recording a record 93 to 1 in 2011, it continued to decline, and then recorded the lowest level in 30 years. It is also the first time in 30 years that the average competition ratio has fallen below 30 to 1. The competition rate for grade 7 civil servants also recorded an all-time low of 42.7 to 1.
As of last year, the number of retirees with less than five years of service was 16,693, more than double the number in 2017 (5,181). It seems that the departure of so-called ‘young civil servants’ is accelerating for reasons such as low pay. A (29), a local civil servant who has recently been contemplating retiring, said in a phone call with Hankyung.com, “The salary was too low compared to the amount of effort[to become a civil servant]and the ‘work-life balance’ was not as good as I expected.”
In fact, according to the ‘2022 civil servant salaries table’ of the Ministry of Personnel Management, the monthly basic salary for a 9th-grade civil servant (No. 1 salary) this year is 1685,000 won. This year’s minimum wage (9,160 won per hour) is regarding 230,000 won less than the monthly salary of 1914,440 won. According to the Civil Service Labor Union, the minimum wage for next year is 2,015,80 won in monthly terms, but even if the wage of the 9th grade 1st salary is increased by 2%, it will be only 1,95,130 won. It will still be below the minimum wage.
Park Un-pyeong, chairman of the civil servants’ union in Guri City Hall, who demanded the application of the ‘public servant wage inflation system’, said at a one-man protest in front of Guri City Hall on the 24th, “If the government is going to force public officials to share pain as a public servant, you must first guarantee a living wage.” Consumer prices rose sharply this year, up 6.7% compared to the same period last year, but the actual wages of civil servants are expected to be cut,” he said.
“We are diagnosing that there is a problem with the public service culture that lowers the motivation of young civil servants to work with low pay,” said Kim Seung-ho, head of the HR Innovation Department.
Hong Min-seong, reporter at Hankyung.com mshong@hankyung.com
