Health and accident insurance in Korea: the 14-day reports employers owe

This guide is for anyone who hires staff in Korea, including foreign-owned companies and owners with a single employee. Two reports have a 14-day deadline: health insurance enrollment for each new employee, and the industrial accident insurance relationship report when your business starts. Rates and rules are as of October 2026.

Who is covered

Health insurance. Every worker and employer at a workplace is an employee subscriber (직장가입자) of national health insurance (National Health Insurance Act, 국민건강보험법, Article 6(2)). The exceptions include:

• day workers hired for less than one month;
• non-regular workers, and part-time workers whose contractual hours are under 60 a month;
• workers and employers at workplaces with no fixed location;
• an employer with no workers, or only the part-time workers above (Enforcement Decree, Article 9).

Foreign employees who have completed alien registration (외국인등록) or a similar registration and work at a covered workplace are employee subscribers as well. Employment insurance follows different rules for foreigners: see Employment insurance for foreign employees in Korea depends on visa status.

Industrial accident insurance (산재보험). The Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act (산업재해보상보험법) applies to every business that employs workers (Article 6). It has no minimum working hours, and the worker's nationality does not matter. Coverage was extended to almost all businesses on July 1, 2018. The remaining exceptions are narrow (Enforcement Decree, Article 2):

• work covered by the accident schemes for public officials, the military, seafarers, fishing crews or private school staff;
• household employment;
• farming, forestry (except logging), fishing and hunting run by a non-corporate owner with fewer than 5 regular workers.

Health insurance: what to file and when

Since January 1, 2025, an employer who has filed the simplified wage payment statement (간이지급명세서) for the previous year with the tax office is treated as having made the annual pay report, unless missing or wrong entries keep the National Health Insurance Service (국민건강보험공단, NHIS) from using it (Enforcement Decree Article 35(3)). The March 31 deadline comes from a decree amendment in force since October 1, 2026; it used to be March 10.

The 2026 health insurance rate is 7.19% of monthly pay, shared equally by employer and employee. On September 8, 2026, the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee decided to keep 7.19% for 2027. Long-term care insurance (장기요양보험) is collected together with the health insurance premium (Act on Long-Term Care Insurance for Older Persons, Article 8(2)), and its 2026 rate is 0.9448% of income.

Industrial accident insurance: two kinds of report

1. Insurance relationship report (보험관계 성립신고). The insurance relationship starts on the day the business starts, whether or not you report it (Premium Collection Act, Article 7). Report it to the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service (근로복지공단, COMWEL) within 14 days (Article 11(1)). A business that ends within 14 days must report by the day before it ends. A business whose coverage depends on its average number of regular workers over a set period must report within 14 days after that period ends. Use Form No. 2 (별지 제2호서식) of the Enforcement Rule; construction and logging businesses use Form No. 3 with a copy of the construction contract, including its cost breakdown (Enforcement Rule, Article 7(1)). The same report covers employment insurance.
2. Hire and leaving reports. Report each new hire by the 15th of the month after hiring, and each departure by the 15th of the month after employment ends (Article 16-10(3) and (4)). You may skip workers with fewer than 60 contractual hours a month. A hire already reported for employment insurance under Article 15 of the Employment Insurance Act need not be reported again (Article 16-10(7)).

The source article said later hires need no accident insurance report. That is wrong: each hire and departure must be reported.

By March 15 each year, employers also report the previous year's total pay for employment and accident insurance (Article 16-10(1)). All of these reports can be filed on the 4 social insurances information website (4대사회보험 정보연계센터, www.4insure.or.kr), which handles workplace registration and employee enrollment and departure for all four social insurances.

What late or missing reports cost

What industrial accident insurance pays

Benefits are paid on the claim of the eligible person (Article 36(2)), so the worker or the family must file a claim with COMWEL.

Checklist

• At the first hire: file the health insurance workplace report and the accident and employment insurance relationship report, each within 14 days.
• For each new employee: health insurance within 14 days; national pension, employment and accident insurance by the 15th of the next month.
• Keep each employee's name, resident registration number or alien registration number, start date and pay correct. Wrong entries lead to correction reports and can cause problems when benefits are claimed.
• Each March: check that the simplified wage statement reached the tax office, and file the employment and accident insurance pay report by March 15.