It is very difficult to find information on this question. The following is information I gathered by reading laws, browsing related organizations and doing web searches.

1. National Pension

National pension is mandatory to . . . → Read More: Korean social insurance system for expatriate employees]]> I already covered social insurance systems for Korean employees in my previous post. But what about social insurance for staff sent from headquarters to Korea?

It is very difficult to find information on this question. The following is information I gathered by reading laws, browsing related organizations and doing web searches.

1. National Pension

National pension is mandatory to foreign workers who are aged 18 to 59 and working in a company located in Korea with 1 employee or more.

The exception is when national pension of the foreign country does not apply to Korean workers working there. In this case, Korean National Pension is not mandatory for the concerned foreign worker (rule of reciprocity).

Currently, Korea has social security agreements with 15 countries such as Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Germany, China, Netherlands, Japan, Italy, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Hungary, France, Australia, Czech, and Ireland.

The agreement affects application of the National Pension for foreigners.

For more information on social security agreements with individual countries, check the English page of the National Pension Service.

2. Industrial accident compensation insurance

Industrial accident compensation insurance is basically applied to foreign employees hired by a company in Korea.

As for the exemption, the same principle of reciprocity as the national pension prevails here.

3. Employment Insurance

Basically, foreign workers are excluded from the application of employment insurance.

- Optional -

However, for those who have E-7 and following visas, employment insurance is optional. They may subscribe to the insurance  or not. The same principle applies to holders of the following visas: C4, E-1, E-2 ~ E7, H-2.

For details of Korean visa types, visit E-Government for Foreigners website and read “Visa Issuance Guide – status of stay”.

- Reciprocity -

Foreign employees with following visas should follow the rule of reciprocity.

D-7: Supervisory intra-company transfer
D-8: Corporate Investment
D-9: Trade Management

4. Health Insurance

Health insurance is mandatory for workplace with one or more employees. However, a foreign employee with one of the following conditions can be exempted from Korean health insurance by submitting a paper and relevant documents to National Health Insurance Corporation.

The concerned employee’s health coverage is guaranteed by:
- his/her own country’s law
- his/her own country’s foreign insurance
- his/her contract with an employer

P.S. : Searching for relevent English – even Korean language – information on social insurances  for foreigners is a frustrating experience. Not a single government agency provides practical information on this issue on their English websites.

Hence, the contents above may not be correct 100 percent. Should you, as an expatriate manager or an expert in Korea, find any mistakes, please let me know.  I will correct it.

After spending a couple of hours on the web searching, I only found a vague answer that registration is required based . . . → Read More: How to open a headhunting company in Korea]]>

Sometimes I receive questions that are not about labor laws but somewhat related to labor-related laws. Yesterday, a potential investor from Hong Kong asked me a question on how to establish a headhunting company in Korea.

After spending a couple of hours on the web searching, I only found a vague answer that registration is required based on employment security act. I had to read and translate a part of the act to get better answers.  The following is a loose excerpt translation of the parts of the act that cover requirements for registration to open a headhunting company in Korea.

According the the act, headhunters or recruiting agencies fall under the category of fee charging placement service and a person  who wants to establish a recruitment or headhunting company should register to city mayors, county chiefs or head of Ku (district) administrative offices. If the business is overseas recruitment, the registration should be made with the Minister of Labor. (article 19, the employment security act)

Requirements for registration are as follows  (article 21, the ordinance of the employment security act)

1. If an applicant is a natural person, he/she should have one of the following qualifications.

2. If an applicant is a legal person, the entitiy should be a company with a paid-in capital of not less than 50 million KRW and  at least two of its executives should have one of the following qualifications.

a. one with a national license of job consultant (grade 1 or 2) based on “national license act”

b. one with two or more years of experience of working in the fields of job counseling, job guidance, vocational training, and other couseling related to job placement in job placement offices, vocational ability development centers, schools, and youth organizations.

c. one with the license of certified  labor affairs consultant based on the certified  labor affairs consultant act

d. one with two or more years of experience of working as a full-time union official in a company-based labor union with 100 or more members or a federation or a confederation of labor unions.

e. one with two or more years of experience of working for labor management  in workplaces with 300 or more regular workers

f. one who worked for two or more years as a government official in the central or local governments.

g. one with two or more years of teaching experience with a licence of teacher based on the elementary and secondary education act.


3. Applicants should have an office of at least 33 square meters (legal person) or 20 square meters (natural person) (article 18, enforcement decree of the employment security act).