Daejeon City Introduces 'Paid Sick Leave' for Self-Employed... 80,000 KRW per Day of Hospitalization

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Daejeon City is introducing a ‘paid sick leave system’ for local self-employed workers.

Daejeon City announced on the 22nd that it will introduce and implement the Daejeon-type paid sick leave system starting this September.

The paid sick leave system targets self-employed individuals who are regional subscribers to health insurance and whose income is at or below 150% of the median income. Eligible individuals will receive support of 81,610 KRW per day for up to 11 days when hospitalized due to illness.

To implement the paid sick leave system, the city enacted related ordinances and secured a project budget of 200 million KRW through a supplementary budget. Among metropolitan cities, Daejeon is the first to introduce this system.

Meanwhile, in this year’s first supplementary budget, the city secured a total budget of 36.8 billion KRW, including funds for the paid sick leave system. The budget will mainly be used to support the local economy and small business owners affected by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

The supplementary budget includes expenses for supporting social insurance premiums for small business owners to maintain employment, income stabilization support for street vendors, improvement of parking environments in traditional markets and shopping districts, expansion of the issuance amount of Ontong Daejeon, and an additional 3% cashback accumulation within traditional markets.

Heo Tae-jeong, Mayor of Daejeon, said, “We will strive to discover policies needed on the ground so that small business owners can play a pivotal role in the local economy and ensure that related budgets are secured as a top priority.”