Ulsan Metropolitan City will begin paying a "fairness allowance" to fixed-term workers starting next year to provide a more stable working environment. Shown is an exterior view of Ulsan City Hall. [Ulsan city government]
Ulsan Metropolitan City will begin paying a "fairness allowance" to fixed-term workers starting next year to provide a more stable working environment. Shown is an exterior view of Ulsan City Hall. [Ulsan city government]

Ulsan Metropolitan City is set to become the first public institution to introduce a so-called "fairness allowance" — a compensatory benefit for fixed-term workers employed for less than one year — ahead of the central government's own planned rollout next year.

The city announced Wednesday it would introduce the fairness allowance as part of a broader package of improvements for fixed-term workers engaged in administrative support and field operations at city hall, alongside a 60 percent increase in meal subsidies and the creation of a new holiday bonus.

The measures follow recommendations in a "public-sector non-regular worker treatment improvement guideline" jointly drawn up by related ministries last May. The city has finalized plans covering the fairness allowance, an adequate wage standard, and three welfare benefits — meal subsidies, welfare points and a holiday bonus — and has notified departments with fixed-term hiring plans of the criteria to be reflected in the initial 2027 budget proposal.

Ulsan currently employs fixed-term workers for administrative and civil affairs support as well as seasonal operations including environmental and sanitation work, park and green space management, and parking and traffic management.

Under the plan, fixed-term workers will receive the 2027 minimum hourly wage of 10,700 won ($8) and be paid a lump-sum fairness allowance upon separation based on contract length: 396,000 won for contracts of one to under two months, 877,000 won for three to under four months, 1.31 million won for five to under six months, 1.68 million won for seven to under eight months, 2.13 million won for nine to under ten months, and 2.58 million won for eleven to under twelve months.

The city will also significantly expand employee benefits. Meal subsidies will rise 60 percent from current levels to ease the burden of food costs amid sustained inflation, and a holiday bonus will be introduced to foster a sense of belonging among workers.

Each department will be required to budget for the improvements, which will then go through the city council's budget deliberation and approval process before payments begin in January 2027.

The move follows the central government's policy to improve conditions for non-regular workers in the public sector, but it has not been without controversy. When the Ministry of Employment and Labor formally announced the fairness allowance in April, the People Power Party issued a statement opposing it, saying that "having the state arbitrarily design and control wages — which are formed through contracts between businesses and workers and reflect factors such as job difficulty, skill level, scope of responsibility and hiring method — amounts to nothing more than a wage-control experiment."

The government's fairness allowance is set to apply to central administrative agencies and their affiliated bodies, local governments, education offices and national and public educational institutions, public institutions, subsidiaries under the enforcement decree of the Local Public Enterprises Act, local public enterprises, and organizations funded or invested by local governments.


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