SME Young Workers: "Beyond Wage Gaps, Housing and Subscription Support Needed"

The Youth Employment Hope Committee under the Economic, Social and Labor Council announced today (October 15) that it held its 3rd "Youth Roundtable" meeting to listen to young workers' perspectives on employment at Ara, an SME located in the Pungse General Industrial Complex in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province.

During the meeting held on October 14, young employees and human resources managers working at SMEs participated to share the difficulties they face in hiring and retaining young talent in smaller companies.

Young participants stated that in addition to policies aimed at reducing the wage gap between SMEs and large corporations, tangible support systems such as housing subscriptions and residential aid are necessary, according to the council.

"Given the massive gap with conglomerates, hearing about the wages and performance bonuses at Samsung or SK Hynix sometimes makes us feel a relative sense of deprivation," one young worker said.

The participant suggested, "It would be great if practical benefits such as housing subscription savings could be expanded for young people working at SMEs, so that they can feel working at an SME actually helps them secure housing."

Opinions were also raised that since commuting is difficult due to a lack of public transportation in regional industrial complexes, transportation expense support should be established for young workers in industrial complexes.

Additionally, the young workers noted that job-hopping should not be viewed negatively, explaining that many move from one SME to another in search of better jobs and career paths.

HR managers shared that regional SMEs face significant challenges in securing specialized professionals and retaining young employees.

They also explained that a considerable amount of time and cost is required for newly hired employees to acquire the necessary job competencies.

One HR manager remarked, "While we have pursued industry-academia cooperation projects such as university work-study parallel programs and contract departments, they ended up as one-off projects. To resolve the labor shortage in SMEs, we need to examine structural issues together, including the conglomerate-centered industrial structure and the prime-subcontractor relationship."

Committee members attending the roundtable included Lim Eun-joo, Director-General of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU); Lim Young-joo, Director of Human Resources Policy at the Korea Federation of SMEs (KBIZ); and Professor Yoon Ja-young of Chungnam National University.

The Youth Employment Hope Committee plans to utilize the opinions gathered during this session to discuss tasks for securing young talent in SMEs and improving job quality.

(Photo provided by the Economic, Social and Labor Council, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.