Must-have information for New Year

Mothers pose with their babies in a recent contest held in Seoul to pick the healthiest babies. The Korean government plans to take extra measures to boost falling birthrates. / Korea Times file

By Kim Tae-gyu

The Year of the Rabbit sees a lot of changes across the spectrum of people’s daily life. For instance, support for babies is being increased, companies are embracing new accounting systems and the minimum wage is now up 5 percent, to name but a few.

One of the most notable changes is the substantially enhanced subsidies for having more children, which are in tandem with the government’s all-out efforts to cope with the fast aging of the population.

The number of people aged 65 or older surpassed 10 percent of the total population in late 2009 and the proportion is expected to top 20 percent in about 15 years due to the low birthrate.

According to Statistics Korea, the average number of babies born during a Korean woman’s lifetime was 1.15 in 2009, representing a four-year low since 1.08 in 2005.

A total of 445,000 babies were born in 2009, down 4.4 percent from 466,000 the previous year and one of the world’s lowest birthrates is expected to undermine national competitiveness if not addressed.

More children

The strategy of the Seoul administration to boost the birthrate is two-pronged this year _ direct support for pregnant women and indirect incentives of more subsidies to households with more children.

Beginning this April, pregnant women will receive as much as 400,000 won for hospital bills for matters regarding their babies. If the children come down with certain diseases, parents will receive some payouts in the latter half.

Thus far, the government has provided a maximum of 4.5 million won to those who try to have test-tube babies. The ceiling will be raised to 7.2 million won beginning this month.
To encourage couples working together without children, dubbed “dual income no kids” (DINK), to have babies, the government will set up programs to take care of young students at school.

Under the scheme, which will start this March, students at elementary school and kindergarten can stay at schools from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Households with low incomes can also benefit even if both parents do not work.

During extra-curricular classes, students will work on subjects such as music, English, arts, science and essays.

Families with multiple children will also get more tax refunds in year-end adjustments.

Minimum wage, surcharges

Employees had to pay at least 4,110 won an hour to workers in 2010. The lower level will be raised by around 5 percent to 4,320 won. When an employee works 40 hours every week, he will get a minimum of 700,000 won a month.

A five-day work week will be applied to companies whose payrolls are between five and 20. Firms with less than five employees have to pay severance payments beginning this year.

There are bad pieces of news from the perspective of taxpayers _ health insurance fees will rise by 5.9 percent.

Protection of the weak

Banks have been accused of forcing borrowers to deposit parts of the loans back to lenders. In particular, those with low credit rates have been victimized in this wrongdoing.

The maneuvers surfaced as a social malaise last year when loans to those with low credit rates captured huge media attention.

The solution of the financial policymakers: Banks cannot oblige borrowers with low credit ratings to deposit more than 1 percent of the loans at the lenders over a month before and after the loan contracts.

Multicultural-marriage families will get discounts when they send mail or parcels to their home countries through express mail service (EMS), which is offered by the state-run Korea Post.

The discounts will be between 10 percent and 15 percent. Those eligible for the benefits can get the discounts by visiting nearby post offices with foreign registration cards or Korean citizenship cards.

Yet, it depends when the services will start because they are set to begin after the Korea Post sign contracts with regional governments of the country.

The Korea Post provides the EMS via an alliance of public postal administrations in more than 140 countries. It emerges as a major threat to private powerhouses such as DHL, UPS or FedEx.

New accounting format

People would pay little attentions to the accounting system called the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS). But corporate citizens cannot afford to ignore the new format because its adoption is mandatory starting this year.

All financial institutions and listed companies are required to employ the IFRS, which is the principle-based standard unlike the rule-based conventional methods.

Some confusion is expected especially in small-sized companies listed in the tech-heavy Kosdaq. Yet, the financial regulator says that the country is ready to brace for the switch that will bring about more transparency.

``We are also revamping our accounting supervision in line with the principles-based approach of the IFRS and will introduce a registration requirement for accounting firms that audit publicly traded outfits,’’ said Kim Young-hwan, Financial Supervisory Service first senior deputy governor.

``The goal is to take Korea’s accounting transparency to a new level.’’

Multiple labor unions

In this July, companies will be allowed to have more than one labor union. Samsung Group may sweat because most of their subsidiaries maintain just a single union that is friendly to the management.

When the multiple-union system is phased in, some employees who do not like the existing union may flock together to establish a new one, a headache Samsung has never faced.

Theoretically, disgruntled workers of Samsung Electronics, the flagship affiliate of the nation’s biggest conglomerate, may go strike in the latter half of this year.

Ever since the world’s largest maker of memory chips and flat-panel displays was established in 1969, the global giant’s employees have never held a strike.

Thus far, multiple unions have been allowed for industries but not for companies.

토끼띠 새해 무엇이 달라질까?

새해는 육아 지원이 강화되고, 최저 임금이 5% 상승하고 새로운 회계 시스템이 도입되는 등 국민들의 일상에 영향을 줄 많은 변화들이 예고되어 있다. 그 중 가장 눈에 띄는 것은 일련의 출산 장려 정책이다.

특히 고령화 사회를 맞아 국가 경쟁력 약화가 우려되자 우리 정부는 출산율을 높이기 위해 다양한 직간접적 정책을 시행한다. 올 4월부터 임산부의 진료비 지원이 최대 400,000원으로 확대되고 태아의 질병에 대한 지원도 하반기에 확대된다.

시험관 시술을 원하는 난임부부에 대한 지원은 이번 달부터 기존 최대 450만원에서 720만원으로 확대된다. 맞벌이 부부를 위한 유치원생과 초등생의 지원이 아침 6시 30분부터 오후 10시까지 학교에서 운영된다. 이번 3월부터 시행되는 이 제도는 저소득층 가정에서도 활용 가능하다.

최저임금은 시간당 4,110원에서 5% 상승한 4,320원이 된다. 주 40시간 근무 기준으로 최저월봉이 700,000원 가량인 셈이다. 퇴직급여제가 5인 이상 20인 이하 사업장에 적용되고 의료보험료는 5.9% 상승한다.

사회적 약자에 대한 은행의 소위 “꺾기” 행태에 대한 감시도 대폭 강화된다. 신용 등급이 낮은 층에 대출을 하면서 대출 전후 각 1개월 간에 대출금의 1% 이상 저축 상품, 펀드, 보험 등에 가입할 것을 강요할 경우 꺾기로 간주한다. 다문화 가족의 구성원이 본국에 우편물을 국제 특송(EMS)로 보낼 경우 10~15% 할일을 제공한다.

시민들의 직접 관심사는 아니지만 기업들 입장에서는 올해부터 새로운 회계방식인 IFRS가 도입된다. 상장기업과 금융기관들은 의무적으로 IFRS를 적용해야 한다. 또한 올 하반기부터 사업장 단위의 복수 노조도 허용된다.