"Full Exemption of Civil Service Exam Application Fees"... Ruling Party’s Hur Young Proposes Amendments to National and Local Public Officials Act
Full Exemption of Application Fees for National and Local Civil Service Recruitment Exams
A bill that would grant a full exemption from application fees for new civil servant recruitment exams has been introduced.
On July 21, Yeong Heo, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, announced that he had sponsored revisions to the “National Public Officials Act” and the “Local Public Officials Act” to this effect.
Currently, applicants are required to pay application fees for civil servant recruitment exams, with only a discretionary provision for fee reductions targeted at disadvantaged groups.
In particular, there have been fairness issues, as the imposition of application fees varies depending on the type of exam, even though all are for public office positions. For example, open recruitment exams for public officials conducted by the Ministry of Personnel Management are exempt from fees, whereas national general service recruitment exams and open position exams by local governments require applicants to pay fees.
As of 2025, the number of applicants for the national civil servant exam is expected to reach 129,406, resulting in approximately 730 million won in application fee revenue. Revenue from local civil servant exam fees is estimated at about 1.1 billion won annually. Considering the administrative costs incurred as individual local governments collect and refund these fees, some argue that a full exemption would be more efficient from an administrative standpoint than maintaining the current system.
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Assemblyman Heo stated, “Public office should be open to everyone, and no one should have to give up on this path due to financial burden. Through this amendment, we aim to lower entry barriers to public office for youth and the employment-vulnerable, and to create a recruitment environment where everyone can compete fairly based on their abilities.”
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