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News summary on the way home from work, Subsletter Evening.
The size of the national household for next year has been set at 639 trillion won.
It's a government bill that passed the National Assembly.
The focus is on austerity finance, which is budgeting that tightens the belt.
Civil servants' remuneration (salary) was also decided to 'tickle' up to 1.7% only for those under level 5, but complaints from the public service community saying, "Considering the inflation rate, it is a real reduction in remuneration."
It also publishes pay stubs.
Level 5 and lower 1.7% 'tickle' increase... Level 4 or higher freeze/return
According to the budget for 2023, civil servants from grades 5 to 9 will receive a 1.7% increase in remuneration next year.
The basic salary of the 9th grade civil servant is 1,686,500 won this year, but next year's pay will be accurate only when the salary table comes out, but with a simple calculation, it comes out to 1,715,170 won.
The salary increase rate for civil servants has been set to be below 1% for three years in a row. After a 2.8% increase in 2020, it rose 0.9% in 2021 and 1.4% this year.
The government has set the keynote of next year's budget plan to be 'sound finance', which means 'the civil servants should also tighten their belts'.
In that sense, the increase rate seems to have been minimized.
However, next year's increase rate of 1.7% will apply only to public officials of level 5 or lower, and it is decided to return 10% of their remuneration for ministerial level civil servants and freeze remuneration for civil servants above level 4 (secretary).
This is also part of intensive restructuring to prepare the budget.
The president's remuneration this year is 240.64 million won, the prime minister is 186.56 million won, and the deputy prime minister is 141.14 million won. Next year, each will receive a 10% lower remuneration.
Considering the return and freezing, the overall increase in civil servants' remuneration would be lower than 1.7%.
This year, the raise-freeze-return was decided by dividing the upper and lower positions.
"Reduction of real wages ... Transferring pain to lower-ranking positions"
There are complaints in the public service community that the salaries of lower-level civil servants are too low.
The Korea Federation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Public Officials' Trade Unions held a press conference in front of the National Assembly today (30th) condemning the actual reduction in the remuneration of civil servants, and similar press conferences were held all over the country.
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Civil servants' unions claim, "In the past five years, the inflation rate has risen by 3.9%, but the average increase in civil servants' remuneration has been only 1.9%, which has substantially reduced remuneration."
The civil servant union also pointed out, "Considering that next year's minimum wage will be 2,0580 won, there is a situation in which 8th and 9th grade employees with lower ages will receive lower wages than the minimum wage."
“In the name of sound finance, a significant portion of the greatly reduced tax revenue is passed on to lower-ranking public officials.” “Forcing lower-ranking officials to sacrifice.” Complaints are emerging saying that the remuneration of the Won's president and high-ranking public officials should be drastically cut."
Meanwhile, civil servants' unions are demanding a re-deliberation of civil servants' remuneration next year, the introduction of a price indexation system for civil servants' remuneration, and the establishment of a legal body for the civil servants' remuneration committee.
"Seoul City's 9th grade real income of 1.68 million won"... Specification Disclosure
Let’s take a look at the salary details of the 9th grade 1st salary of Seoul civil servants.
If you look at the statement released yesterday (29th) by the Seoul Public Officials' Union, Seo Gong-no, calling for a pay increase, the actual amount received for this month (August) is 1.68 million won.
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The total amount of the 9th grade 1st salary is a little over 2 million won, but the total amount of deductions including taxes, health insurance premiums, and contributions is about 360,000 won, so the net payment was 1.6 million won.
The union also disclosed the specification, saying that the 7th grade 1st salary (9th grade 3rd salary) is only around 1.75 million won, which is 70,000 won more than the 9th grade 1st salary.
The Seoul Public Officials' Union also created and published a table comparing the minimum wage and the remuneration of new civil servants, arguing that real wages have been lower than the minimum wage since 2018 and the gap is getting wider.
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The Seoul Public Officials' Union said, "In a word, it's a disastrous level. How should low-ranking public officials in this country live? It's amazing."
He also pointed out that "no one pays any attention to the low salaries of low-ranking civil servants because of the optical illusion that the average salaries of civil servants are high."
Of course, he did not mention the merits of civil servants, such as various welfare benefits, civil servant pensions, and job stability.
The monthly salary of a sergeant is 1 million won
Now that we talk about salaries, let's look at the salaries of soldiers.
Next year, the monthly salary of a sergeant will be 1 million won.
This year, the monthly salary of a sergeant of 67,100 won will increase by 323,900 won.
The monthly salary for corporals will rise from 610,000 won to 800,000 won, and privates from 552,100 won to 680,000 won.
There is a reserve fund for tomorrow that helps build assets while serving in the military. The government subsidy will be raised from 141,000 won to 300,000 won per month.
If this asset formation program is included, the monthly salary of a sergeant is 1.3 million won (1 million won per month, 300,000 won in support).
It is said that the personnel who pay the maximum amount of individual contributions and are discharged in December next year can save about 11.97 million won by raising the monthly salary and installment support subsidy.
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A sergeant's monthly salary of 1.3 million won is the amount that must be paid monthly by taking up the reserve savings for tomorrow and filling the monthly limit. I can.
The government is setting up a plan to gradually increase the support for tomorrow's reserve fund, along with the salary, until the end of President Yoon's term.
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This is a picture of a house in Cherniv, Ukraine, which was destroyed by a Russian attack.
Yellow sunflowers are blooming in the ruins of a destroyed building.
(Photo = Yonhap News)