South Korea is moving to overhaul the enrollment structure of its national pension so that non-earning spouses, including homemakers, can build pensions in their own names. The plan would bring non-earning spouses, who are currently excluded from mandatory coverage, into the system as regional subscribers and widen their opportunity to pay contributions later to complete their required enrollment period. The aim is to shift from a system of one pension per household, in which couples depend on a single spouse's benefits, to one in which each person prepares retirement income individually.
According to a report on major operations that the National Pension Service submitted to the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee during a parliamentary audit on the 22nd, the agency is pursuing changes to let non-earning spouses join the national pension. Under the plan, non-earning spouses would be classified as regional subscribers exempt from payments, retaining their status as subscribers while pausing contributions during periods without income.
At present, people without income are treated differently depending on factors such as marital status. Unmarried people without income can keep their subscriber status as payment-exempt subscribers, but those who are married to an earning spouse are classified as excluded from coverage. Payment-exempt subscribers can make back payments for up to 119 months of missed contributions to supplement their enrollment period. Homemakers with no history of past contributions, by contrast, are shut out of both the back-payment option and the contribution subsidy for low-income regional subscribers.
That means a homemaker who married soon after graduating from college and has never paid a contribution while handling housework and child care cannot use back payments to fill past gaps, even when retirement approaches. Because a minimum enrollment period of 10 years is required to receive an old-age pension, the difference becomes a barrier to preparing for retirement.
Behind the gap is the household-centered design of the system at its inception. When the national pension was introduced in 1988, the income replacement rate was 70%, based on the premise that a single breadwinner's pension would support a spouse's retirement as well. The replacement rate has since fallen, but the framework excluding non-earning spouses from coverage has remained.
Women's retirement income is more fragile than men's. According to NPS data, women received an average monthly old-age pension of 429,206 won at the end of 2025, about half the 851,670 won for men. The number of women receiving less than 400,000 won a month was 1,672,182, about 590,000 more than for men.
The average contribution period was also shorter for women, at 123 months, compared with 152 months for men. Among regional subscribers who reported income, women paid contributions for an average of 116 months, short of the 120 months required to receive a pension.
Women accounted for 268,113 voluntary subscribers who pay contributions on their own initiative, more than four times the number of men. Among those who continue voluntary enrollment past age 60 to fill shortfalls in their contribution period or increase their benefits, women numbered 314,173, about 2.2 times the figure for men. In effect, women are applying to join on their own or paying contributions into old age to close gaps in their retirement income.
Along with the enrollment changes, the NPS will draw up measures to improve the back-payment program overall. It is also pursuing a plan to raise the income threshold for contribution subsidies for low-income regional subscribers to less than 1 million won a month from less than 800,000 won.
"The structure that automatically excludes people from national pension coverage simply because they are homemakers needs to be improved quickly," an official at the Ministry of Health and Welfare said.