The labor union of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), which has been in turmoil following an unprecedented impeachment of its chairman, has wrapped up roughly eight months under an acting leadership and elected a new leadership team led by members of the MZ generation (millennials and Gen Z, born between the 1980s and 2000s). With morale sagging and talent draining due to lower pay than other financial sector peers and post-employment restrictions, calls for better treatment among FSS staff are louder than ever.
According to the financial investment industry on the 27th, the FSS union on the 22nd elected Kim Sang-woo, a senior examiner in the Consumer Communications Department (born 1987), as its new chairman and Yoo Ha-rim, a senior examiner in the Asset Management Supervision Department (born 1992), as vice chairwoman, both running under ticket No. 1. They secured more than 90% of the vote, beating rival candidates born in the 1960s and 1970s. Their terms run from the 1st of next month to April 30, 2028.
Within the FSS, the dominant interpretation is that the election result laid bare frustrations that, despite persistent demands for better treatment, both the previous union leadership and management had made only minimal efforts to improve conditions. The former union chairman was suspended from duties in September last year after delegates filed a no-confidence motion amid the push to overhaul the financial supervisory system, and the organization has since been run under an acting chairman.
The biggest issue inside the FSS is that, due to the total personnel cost cap system, employee wage growth has failed to keep pace with inflation. Although the FSS is not a public institution, it is subject to budget guidelines equivalent to those applied to public institutions, capping its total annual labor costs. Workloads have grown as the government strengthens its preemptive financial consumer protection stance, but with the personnel cost ceiling fixed, most employees are not even properly compensated for overtime.
Average pay has been steadily declining. Last year, the average annual salary per FSS employee, excluding performance bonuses, was 105.8 million won. The average salary has fallen for three straight years, from 110.61 million won in 2023 to 108.52 million won in 2024. FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin said at a press briefing last year, "The pay of our executives and staff has dropped below 70% of that in the private financial sector, coming in at just 60%."
As a result, young working-level staff are leaving the FSS at a fast pace. Last year, a total of 50 FSS retirees cleared employment screening, 27 of whom were Grade 3 or Grade 4 employees. Grade 3 (chief examiners and team leaders) and Grade 4 (senior examiners) are the core workforce handling on-site inspections and supervisory operations — the organization's backbone. It was the first time in five years that Grade 3 or lower employees accounted for more than half of those moving to outside jobs.
"Will pave the way to scrap the total personnel cost cap"
The incoming leadership vowed in an acceptance statement the same day to do its utmost to improve members' working conditions.
Chairman-elect Kim Sang-woo and Vice Chairwoman-elect Yoo Ha-rim said, "The unreasonable total personnel cost cap, which effectively holds wage growth below that of civil servants, is sapping our motivation to work hard. Young employees are sinking into defeatism like fleas trapped in a glass jar, and the organization is growing sicker as members drag each other down like crabs stuck in a bucket with no way out."
They added, "We need to make our agency a workplace people want to join, attract top-tier talent, and build a virtuous cycle in which former staff move to the market and help raise internal control standards at financial firms. We will definitely pave the way to abolish the total personnel cost cap and ease post-employment restrictions, and work to deliver tangible results within our term."