Next year, civil servants' pay will rise 3.5% from this year. The starting salary (step 1) for lower-tenure grade 7–9 civil servants will increase a total of 6.6% with an additional hike on top of the across-the-board raise.

The Ministry of Personnel Management said on the 30th that the "2026 civil servant pay regulation amendment" containing these details passed the Cabinet meeting.

Test takers enter an examination hall in Gangnam District, Seoul, as the written exam for open competitive recruitment of Grade 9 national civil servants takes place on Apr. 5. /Courtesy of Ministry of Personnel Management

According to the amendment, on top of next year's 3.5% civil servant pay raise, the base pay for lower-tenure grade 7–9 (or equivalent) civil servants and junior military officers (second lieutenant, first lieutenant, sergeant, staff sergeant) will be increased by an additional 3.1 percentage points (p).

Accordingly, the 2026 starting pay (step 1) for grade 9, combining base pay and allowances, is 34.28 million won a year. The monthly average is about 2.86 million won. That is an increase of 2.05 million won a year and 170,000 won a month.

The Ministry of Personnel Management said this was a measure "considering the widening pay gap with the private sector and the recent departures from public service among lower-tenure civil servants."

Starting next year, treatment will also improve for civil servants responsible for disaster, safety and public security sites. For civil servants receiving the disaster and safety allowance, a heavy workload additional charge and a longevity additional charge (each 50,000 won per month) will be newly established.

The hazardous duty allowance for police and firefighters will be raised from 70,000 won to 80,000 won per month. A special duty allowance (80,000 won per month) will be newly introduced for police directly handling crowd crush incidents and for firefighters exclusively managing the operation of emergency response control teams during disasters. The emergency duty allowance paid for work at disaster sites will double from 8,000 won to 16,000 won per day, and the monthly payment cap will also be expanded from 120,000 won to 180,000 won.

Meanwhile, the fixed meal allowance for civil servants, which had been frozen since 2020, will be raised from 140,000 won to 160,000 won per month.

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