Council Salaries Lower Than Expected

The salary of local assembly members has been set at about the level of first year university graduates, which is lower than expected.

According to the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and local governments as of April 3, the budget committees of 38 city, county and district local assemblies have decided on salary figures for their assembly members.

Changwon City will pay its council members 37.2 million won, Jinju City will pay 35.04 million won, Yangsan City will pay 34.8 million won and Miryang City will pay 31.2 million won. The other 34 local governments have set their annual salaries for local assembly members, including monthly expenses and other legislative costs, at around 20 million won.

Twenty-regions, including Seo-gu in Daegu City (26.55 million won), set their salaries between 25 and 30 million won, while 12 places, including Suncheon (22.26 million won) set their salaries below 25 million won.

This is not even half of the originally expected amount between 50 and 60 million won, and is much lower than the 37-42 million won salary suggested by the National Association of Mayors to local governments.

Since local assembly members have received annually about 21.2 million won to cover for their expenses, in reality, most regions raised annual salary for council members by less than 10 million won. In case of Taean-gun of South Chungcheong Province, the salary was set at 20.11 million won, which is actually a cut.

Nevertheless, most of the regions that have decided on the salary of its local assembly members are agricultural and fishery areas, whose financial independence is low, and it is predicted that in metropolitan areas such as Seoul and Gyeonggi Province there will be assembly members with salaries around 40 million.

In case of Metropolitan Assembly Members, out of the 16 metropolises and provinces Seoul and Daejeon set the salaries at 68.04 million and 49.08 million won, respectively. The Seoul Assembly members receive as much money as a Seoul City Hall Bureau chief.

The salaries of local assembly members are decided by the budget committee, whose members are chosen by the local administrator and assembly chairman, and are finalized after being approved by the local assembly. Most local assemblies will decide on the salaries for their members no latter than mid May.

Kang-Myoung Chang tesomiom@donga.com