A government agency offered 300,000 won for a lecture the professor says would have taken more than a month to prepare from scratch. The episode has touched off a debate in academia over fair pay for knowledge work.
Under Table 2 of the enforcement decree of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, the cap on outside lecture fees for professors at private universities is 1 million won per hour, according to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission on the 12th. But that is only the maximum allowed, not an amount public institutions are required to pay. Agencies can set lower figures based on their own budgets and internal rules, leaving a wide gap between actual payments and the legal ceiling.
For civil servants and employees of public-service-related organizations, the limits are lower: 400,000 won per hour, with a total cap of 600,000 won even for sessions running longer than an hour.
The controversy grew after one account of that gap was made public. Kim Hyun-chul, a professor at Yonsei University College of Medicine, recently described on social media being asked by a government agency to deliver a keynote lecture at a public forum.
Kim reviewed existing research materials, spent a day building slides and stayed on site for the full day of the event. Preparing the material from scratch, the professor said, would have taken more than a month. The fee the responsible official quoted was 300,000 won.
"Just being on site all day is worth about 300,000 won in daily wages for an ordinary worker," the professor said. "Honestly, I felt humiliated." Kim ultimately declined the fee and gave the lecture free of charge, calling it a way to preserve self-respect. The agency later moved to revise the fee, according to accounts of the case.
Other academics described similar experiences. Lee Dong-won, an associate professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said a public institution offered 250,000 won for a 15-minute keynote address, and that the speech was delivered free of charge for the same reason. "I had doubts when I learned that the YouTuber and the master of ceremonies who attended the same event were paid far more per hour than a professor's lecture fee," the professor said.
Kim Yong-jung, a clinic director and former professor at Columbia University's medical school in the United States, said that in the U.S. the pay came to $500 to $1,000 an hour counting preparation, flights and lecture time, while a session in Seoul brought 260,000 won after taxes. "I feel demoralized after lecturing," the director said.
"Oh Eun-young Gets Millions, I Get 300,000 Won"
Kim compared the hourly counseling fees of several million won charged by Oh Eun-young, a psychiatrist, with university professors' lecture fees. "If it is an hour with a top expert in a field, it is hard to call that price expensive," the professor said.
There is a structural difference, however: Oh is a private practitioner free to set prices, while university professors are subject to the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act.
At a Cabinet meeting in June this year, the government approved an amendment to the act's enforcement decree raising the cap on outside lecture fees for researchers at government-funded science and technology research institutes to 1 million won per hour from 400,000 won. The measure was intended to align their treatment with that of university faculty.