The Workers Rights 
South Korea’s Ministry of Justice has announced the foreign workforce system will undergo a large-scale overhaul with its 2030 Immigration Policy Future Strategy. Demographic shrinkage and a lack of labour in high-tech sectors, manufacturing, agriculture and in local economies are addressed by the reform.
The core of the approach is the streamlining of 39 employment visa subcategories in 10 visa categories (E series) into a streamlined three-tier approach that prioritizes skills, qualifications and salary thresholds.
Three-Tier Skill Hierarchy
The new accord classifies foreign workers into three categories – high skilled, medium skilled, low skilled to establish a more streamlined route to labour immigration.
High-Skilled Workers
The high skilled category refers to executives, technology experts, researchers, professors, and other highly-skilled professionals. For individuals who are in high demand in the Information Technology industry, a waiver of the two-year experience requirement (E-7-1) can be granted to science and engineering graduates who have completed approved KCCI training.
With the expansion of Top-Tier Visa more STEM professions such as professor and principal researcher will benefit with quicker avenues to permanent residency.
Medium-Skilled Workers
The medium level skills are created in order to keep experienced technical professionals and to promote upward mobility. E-9 staff may be promoted to E-7-4 with satisfaction of criteria including salary, and knowledge of Korean language.
The workforce ceiling in the agriculture, livestock and fisheries sector has also been raised from 30 percent to 50 percent of an employer’s workforce.
Low-Skilled Workers
In industries like manufacturing, agriculture, livestock and services, the low-skilled tier remains to control both revolving and seasonal staff. The government is also encouraging the depopulation of the region by offering incentives to its residents.
Sponsoring foreigners outside the daily quota is for enterprises having 50 or fewer foreign nationals to contribute to establishments in over 80 designated depopulating areas.
E-9 Quotas and Wage Compliance
The updated framework includes ‘managed’ E-9 quotas for key sectors. 50,000 job postings are made for manufacturing and 10,000 for agriculture and livestock. Another 10,000 are in fisheries, construction and services, and an additional 10,000 are flexed.
Statutory minimum wage for foreign workers stipulated in South Korea is KRW 10,320 per hour (about KRW 2.16 million per month), if 209 hrs per month of work are considered a typical month. In addition, overtime pay and any wage lump-sum system are being under closer scrutiny by authorities.
What Employers Need to Do?
Employers of foreign nationals need to identify and align their current E-1 to E-10 roles to the new skill levels. In addition, employers are also required to keep required records of recruitment into Korea (HiKorea) and confirm Work24 (domestic recruitment) requirements before applying for the relevant records.
FAQs
Why is South Korea changing its work visa system?
Demographic decline, labor shortages and shift in employment needs among South Koreans are driving restructuring of employment immigration.
What are the three new skill tiers?
The proposed hierarchy is as follows – High skilled, medium skilled, low skilled – based on their qualifications, experience and employment requirements.
What should employers do now?
Employers must review roles, reporting, wage compliance and recruitment processes for foreign workers to be prepared for the new immigration system.
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