Departure Insurance & Workplace Change Calculator

This calculator covers two things an E-9 worker on the Employment Permit System needs to sort out before leaving Korea. The first is money. Enter your average monthly wage and years of continuous service and it gives the severance pay the law requires, compares it with what has actually accumulated in your departure guarantee insurance, and shows any shortfall the employer must pay you separately. The second is the count of workplace changes. Enter how many times you have moved and how many of those moves were for reasons that were not your fault, and it shows how many changes you have left.

Because it is called insurance, many workers assume the departure guarantee is something separate from severance pay. It is not: the law deems it to be the severance scheme itself. So if the insurance holds less than the statutory severance, the employer owes the difference. Putting a number on that difference is the first purpose of this page.

E-9 workers preparing to leave, once they have confirmed the accumulated balance with the insurer. If that balance is below the statutory severance, the shortfall has to be claimed from the employer before departure, and it is hard to raise the subject without knowing the figure. It suits support centres and interpreters who sit with workers and run the numbers together.

It also matters for workers who want to change employer. Many endure bad conditions believing they have used all three changes, but a move caused by the business closing or suspending operations, or by the employer's mistreatment or breach of working conditions, does not count. Recounting without those moves can reveal that a change is still available. Employers can use it too, to check that premiums have been paid in full and to see what they will owe on top when the worker leaves.

The severance side rests on 외국인근로자의 고용 등에 관한 법률 제13조. Paragraph 1 requires the employer to take out departure guarantee insurance naming the worker as the insured and to pay the premiums monthly, and paragraph 2 deems that insurance to constitute the severance scheme required by 근로자퇴직급여 보장법 제8조제1항. That provision sets statutory severance at no less than 30 days of average wage for each year of continuous service. This calculator treats the average monthly wage as one month's worth, multiplies it by the years of service to get the statutory figure, and subtracts the insurance balance to find the shortfall. If the balance is higher, the shortfall is zero.

The same article sets the timing and the limitation period. Under paragraph 3 the insurance is paid within 14 days of departure, or within 14 days of the application where the claim arises from a change of visa status or death, or is filed after departure. Under paragraph 4 the right to claim expires 3 years after the ground for payment arises, after which the funds are transferred to the Human Resources Development Service of Korea.

The change count rests on 제25조. 제18조 sets the period of employment at 3 years from entry, and 제25조제4항 caps workplace changes at 3 during that period and 2 during any extension. The proviso to that paragraph excludes moves made for the reasons in 제1항제2호: closure or suspension of the business, revocation of the employment permit, breach of dormitory standards, or the employer breaching working conditions or treating the worker unfairly. The calculator subtracts those moves before comparing with the cap. The deadlines in 제25조제3항 matter just as much: you must apply for a change within 1 month of the contract ending and obtain the change-of-workplace permit within 3 months of applying, and missing either one makes you liable to leave the country.

Suppose you earned an average of ₩2,500,000 a month, worked for three years, and the departure insurance holds ₩6,000,000. Statutory severance is ₩2,500,000 times three years, or ₩7,500,000. Subtracting the ₩6,000,000 balance leaves ₩1,500,000, and that shortfall is money the employer must pay separately. In other words you collect ₩6,000,000 from the insurer and ₩1,500,000 from the employer, not ₩7,500,000 from one source.

If the same worker changed workplace once, for personal reasons, one change counts and two of the 3 remain. If they changed three times but one move was because the business closed, only two count and one change is still available. There is no reason to put up with a bad workplace on the assumption that all three are gone.

The biggest one is leaving Korea believing the insurance balance is the whole of the severance. Premiums are paid monthly by the employer, and if wages rose or a month was missed, the balance falls short of the statutory figure. The shortfall is far easier to collect before departure; once the worker has left, contact is often lost and the money never arrives.

The second is putting up with mistreatment because "the changes are used up". Moves that were not the worker's fault are not counted. Whether a move qualifies is decided by the employment security office, so keep dated records of unpaid wages, abuse or similar and seek advice. The third is missing a deadline. Two clocks run: 1 month after the contract ends to apply, and 3 months after applying to obtain the permit. Miss either and you must leave. If an industrial accident, illness, pregnancy or childbirth prevented you, the clock restarts when that reason ends, so make sure that is on record.

Finally, the severance figure here is an approximation that takes the average monthly wage as one month's pay. The legal average wage is the total pay for the three months before leaving divided by the days in that period, and it changes depending on whether bonuses and allowances are included, so confirm the exact figure with your pay slips. The tax on severance is handled separately in the severance pay calculator.