This year's subcontracting transaction fairness index for small and medium-sized businesses came to 80.53, up 2.61 points from a year earlier.
The transaction fairness index is a metric developed in 2021 by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises to quantitatively measure and analyze the level of fairness small and medium-sized businesses feel in subcontracting transactions. It was calculated by quantifying responses to survey questions by category, including contracts and unit-price conclusion, delivery conditions, payment, and technology protection.
KBIZ said on the 19th that, based on the results of the "2025 survey on the level of fairness in subcontracting transactions for small and medium-sized businesses" conducted on 407 small and medium-sized companies from the 3rd of last month to the 15th of this month, the 2025 transaction fairness index stood at 80.53, up 2.61 points from the previous year.
By industry, the index rose in other sectors such as textiles, paper, and furniture (75.67→83.26), automobiles (76.79→78.96), and rubber-plastic and non-metallic (77.35→79.42). In particular, in other sectors, the indices for contracts and unit-price conclusion (70.91→78.39) and delivery conditions (80.04→86.82) improved. In contrast, in electronic components, electrical equipment, and medical, the indices for contracts and unit-price conclusion (77.22→76.62) and delivery conditions (85.21→83.91) deteriorated.
Yang Chan-hoe, head of the Innovation Growth Division at the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises, said, "In microbusiness sectors such as textiles, apparel, paper, and printing, which are struggling with high inflation, a strong dollar, and minimum wage hikes, the level of transaction fairness has risen," and "it is presumed that the delivery price indexation system had a positive effect on improving contract and unit-price conclusion and delivery conditions."