Government Expands Eligibility for Green Seed Retirement Pension Fund

The government has significantly expanded the eligibility for the Green Seed Retirement Pension Fund, aiming to address gaps in retirement pension coverage.

On July 22, the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service held a ceremony in Mapo-gu, Seoul, to commemorate the expansion of the Green Seed program and to introduce improvements following the revised Worker Retirement Benefits Security Act.

Under the new regulations, the eligibility for the Green Seed program has been expanded from businesses with 30 or fewer regular employees to those with fewer than 50 employees. Starting in January 2027, the eligibility will further extend to businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

Additionally, a new Individual Retirement Pension (IRP) product has been introduced, allowing self-employed individuals, labor providers, and public servants to join the public fund-based retirement pension. The government expects this will strengthen the foundation for retirement income security for groups that have been excluded from retirement pension benefits until now.

The Green Seed program, launched in 2022, is the country's first public fund-based retirement pension, designed to pool contributions from various small businesses into a single fund for professional management. It aims to provide stable asset management services to small businesses, allowing even the smallest enterprises to benefit from economies of scale. Currently, there are about 190,000 participants, with accumulated funds reaching approximately 1.9 trillion won.

As the population ages rapidly and non-standard labor increases, reducing gaps in retirement pension coverage has become an important policy issue. The expansion of eligibility to include self-employed individuals and platform workers, who were previously outside the system, is expected to enhance the public retirement income security framework.

During the ceremony, plaques of appreciation were presented to business owners with fewer than 50 employees who newly joined the Green Seed program, as well as to IRP participants. Attendees were also able to apply for membership on-site, with promotional activities for the program taking place at Front One, a hub for startups and young workers.

Kwon Chang-jun, Deputy Minister of Labor, stated, "The fact that workers in small businesses, as well as self-employed individuals and labor providers, can now benefit from the public fund-based retirement pension represents a significant advancement in our country's retirement income security system. We will continue to address gaps in retirement pension coverage and support the activation of fund-based retirement pensions like Green Seed through ongoing improvements and field support."