Promised Military Pay Raises Fall Short Under President Yoon Suk Yeol

The YouTube video Captain Kim Sang Ho—Everything About the Military revealed that the government has not paid soldiers’ overtime and duty allowances
The military has given no explanation or apology

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s election promise has again been spotlighted.

In 2021, when he was a presidential candidate, Yoon Suk Yeol promised to honor military service and provide fair compensation, outlining his national security policy.

Yoon’s policy proposal focused on three main areas: improving the conditions for career soldiers and ROTC members and strengthening veterans’ policies.

Among these, the plan to improve conditions for career soldiers is currently receiving attention, and the reasons for this are being closely examined.

In December 2021, Yoon announced on his social media that he would implement various allowances, including hazardous duty pay, special duty pay, overtime pay, and housing allowances, and reform the military housing support policy to include national balanced military apartments and single-person accommodation.

However, two years after Yoon’s administration’s inauguration, career soldiers’ welfare appears to remain poor.

A YouTube video recently revealed that some military units are not paying overtime or duty allowances to professional soldiers on time, resurfacing Yoon’s statements.

In a video posted on the YouTube channel Captain Kim Sang-ho—Everything About the Military in April, a career soldier claimed he received overtime pay in January but not in February or March.

The video was filmed on April 13, indicating that the soldier had not received overtime pay for about two months.

Viewers of the video left comments such as “I still haven’t received mine,” “We need to stage a rebellion,” and “Is this even a country?” The channel’s host, Kim Sang-ho, remarked, “My mom used to say that the advantage of being a civil servant is that the government doesn’t delay salaries unless the country collapses. But now allowances are being delayed?”

He also revealed, “Some units haven’t received duty or overtime pay. Although not all units are like this, quite a few have reported unpaid overtime.”

The live chat comments included, “They compile the requirements but don’t pay,” and “They said it would be paid today, but it’s still not done in XX division,” supporting Kim’s claim that many units are not paying overtime.

In the video, Kim Sang Ho strongly argued, “At the very least, the organization should announce why payments are delayed and apologize. They need to apologize and explain why the payment wasn’t made.”

He continued, “I understand that payments can be delayed. I understand that people can make mistakes. But shouldn’t they at least issue an official document or notice? This is disrespecting the soldiers,” criticizing the problems in some military units.

In a short YouTube shorts video edited from the original, the caption reads, “Professional soldiers cannot even appeal anywhere, and their families’ livelihoods are threatened,” amplifying the criticism.

In reality, the improvement of conditions for professional soldiers that the Yoon administration promised at its inauguration has failed to materialize and seems to be stagnating.

Recently, the Ministry of National Defense established a presidential decree called Regulation on Overtime Allowances for Soldiers, which expands the recognized hours for overtime allowances for soldiers in border units.

Initially, even if they worked 100 hours, only a maximum of 57 hours were recognized for overtime pay, but this has been institutionalized to 100 hours.

They decided to pay the increased salary from last February, but even this payment has been delayed, causing dissatisfaction within the military.