Korea’s top hospital under scrutiny after 9 years atop disability levy list

Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) paid the largest disability employment levy among Korea’s public institutions in 2025, extending a nine-year streak that has kept the country’s flagship public hospital under scrutiny over its failure to meet disability hiring rules.

SNUH recorded a disability employment rate of 2.85 percent in 2025, below the 3.8 percent quota required for public institutions.

It was assessed 2.14 billion won ($1.44 million) in levies, the highest among all public bodies, according to Korea Biomedical Review (KBR)’s tally of data provided by the office of Seo Mi-hwa, a Democratic Party lawmaker.

Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) has improved disability hiring but still fell short of Korea’s public-sector quota, paying the country’s highest levy for a ninth straight year. (Credit: SNUH)

The records, which begin in 2017, the earliest year available from Seo’s office, show a long-running pattern: SNUH ranked first in levy payments every year through 2025, paying more than 22.3 billion won ($15 million) in total despite steadily increasing its number of disabled workers.

SNUH is one of Korea’s “Big Four” hospitals and ranked 41st in a recent global hospital list, one place higher than a year earlier.

SNUH’s recognized number of disabled employees rose from 163 in 2017 to 463 in 2025, while its employment rate climbed from 1.44 percent to 2.85 percent.

But the hospital’s workforce grew too, from 11,321 to 16,255. Its legal quota rose from 362 to 617 workers. The gap never closed.

After years of gains, the hospital lost ground in the latest figures.

Its disability employment rate reached 2.98 percent in 2024, the highest level in the records reviewed by KBR. By 2025, it had fallen to 2.85 percent, and the levy rose to 2.14 billion won from 2.05 billion won.

Seo, a visually impaired lawmaker who chairs the Democratic Party’s national disability committee, said in comments to KBR that the figures showed how one of Korea’s most prominent public hospitals could continue missing the legal target while treating the levy as a recurring cost.

Her office said the current structure can make paying the levy cheaper than hiring, especially for high-wage workplaces.

“Structurally, that criticism cannot be avoided,” Seo’s office said, adding that the base levy amount should be raised to a more realistic level.

Seo’s office said the problem at SNUH appeared to be more than a staffing constraint. Asked whether the case reflected a lack of hiring capacity or a lack of will, the office said it viewed it as “a lack of willingness to improve.”

Under Korean law, public institutions are required to employ disabled workers at a rate equal to 3.8 percent of their workforce. Employers that fall short must pay a levy tied to the number of unfilled positions.

In a phone call, a spokesperson for the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities explained that the lowest base levy begins at roughly 60 percent of the minimum wage, but only for employers that have already filled at least 75 percent of their quota.

Penalties increase as compliance falls, with employers that hire no disabled workers assessed at the full minimum wage level.

That structure has drawn criticism from Seo’s office, which says the levy can still be cheaper than hiring, particularly for high-wage employers.

The agency also said the published employment rates generally reflect Korea’s double-counting rule, under which workers with severe disabilities can count as two employees.

In a written response to KBR, SNUH said it was trying to create “quality jobs” for people with disabilities but faced “practical limits” because much of its workforce consists of licensed medical professionals.

The hospital said it had created support roles in parking, wheelchair management, physical measurement, inventory and pharmacy work, administrative assistance and parcel sorting. It also said it had run internship programs for disabled workers.

SNUH said it could not provide additional details on whether those programs had led to regular jobs, or a timeline for meeting the legal target.

The employment agency said hospitals can face “real difficulty” because quotas are calculated against the full workforce, even when many jobs require medical licences. But it said hospitals still have room to expand hiring through non-medical roles and newly designed jobs.

It cited examples including hospital guidance, pharmacy support, medical assistant work and roles helping patients move between wards.

Seo’s office rejected that explanation, saying hospitals also employ workers outside licensed medical roles and that SNUH had not done enough to expand those positions.

“The hospital’s position has been consistent, but doctors and nurses are not the only people who work in hospitals,” the office said. “There are non-medical roles too, and that is where we believe improvement has not been made.”

The office said SNUH’s case carried broader significance because it is widely seen as one of the country’s leading public hospitals.

“Money that should be going toward medical care is leaking out every year in levies because disabled workers are not being hired,” the office said.

The case comes as the government faces pressure to toughen the levy system. A bill pending in the National Assembly would raise the minimum base levy from 60 percent of the minimum wage to 100 percent.