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By Lee Suh-yoon
The top court's Thursday decision to raise the expected legal maximum age for physical work from 60 to 65 is likely to affect many sectors of the rapidly aging society, causing debates on age adjustment for retirement, insurance, elderly benefits and others.
On Thursday, in a compensation suit involving the 2015 wrongful death of a four-year-old child surnamed Park at a swimming pool in Incheon, the Supreme Court overturned its 1989 decision that set the maximum legal age for physical work at 60. The court said the boy's lifetime lost income should be calculated on the premise he would have carried out physical work until the age of 65.
To support its decision, it cited changes in key socioeconomic factors such as the increased average lifespan.
As the age limit is applied when calculating lost income in compensation cases on the premise that the person would have engaged in manual labor, the ruling is likely to affect the age limits for white-collar professions, which have already been varied, such as 65 for doctors and writers and 70 for lawyers or pastors.
The insurance industry is affected the most directly, because in car insurance, compensation is calculated with the age set at 60. If the age is pushed up to 65, the compensation amount would increase.
Other than compensation cases, the ruling is expected to re-ignite the debate of raising the retirement age.
The general retirement age in Korea is 60, at which most Koreans are still healthy and entirely capable of working. Most are forced to find part-time work or open their own business to pay their bills after retirement.
According to OECD data between 2011 and 2016, the actual age people stop working in Korea was 72 for men and 72.2 for women, higher than the OECD average of 65.1 and 63.6, respectively.
The debate over retirement age will also be linked to pensions. The government is planning to gradually raise the age eligible to receive the national pension due to budget issues amid the aging population.
"Starting in 2033, people can only receive their pensions starting at the age of 65. If they must all retire at age 60 like now, there will be a five-year no-income gap for the elderly," Roh Hee-bum, the lawyer who represented Park's parents in the case, told The Korea Times.
The ruling will support the government's plan to revise the legal definition of "old age" to 70 from the current 65, also due to the aging society and the financial burden the state and younger generations have to shoulder.
Sixty-five is the age when people can receive elderly benefits in welfare, such as free subway rides and free vaccinations.
