한국의 종속계약자 : 개념, 규모, 근로환경 만족도

This study examines the concept and key issues of dependent contractors, a new category in the ILO's 2018 International Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE-18). It also estimates their prevalence, demographic and occupational characteristics, and satisfaction with working conditions using the 2023 Korean Working Conditions Survey. Dependent contractors are workers who provide goods or services to another economic unit under commercial contracts rather than employment contracts, while being economically dependent on that unit and subject to its direction and control over how the work is performed. This category was introduced to better capture workers whose employment status is difficult to determine as either employees or self-employed workers due to disguised employment and legal limitations, and who are therefore insufficiently protected by labor regulations. The study also explores how this category relates to other forms of precarious work arrangements, and discusses methodological challenges in applying this concept to the analysis of actual work relationships. Empirically, we identify dependent contractors using the ILO’s two-stage modular approach: for respondents who self-identified as employees, contract type and payment structure are assessed, while for those who self-identified as self-employed workers without employees, economic and operational dependencies are evaluated using eight methods from prior literature. Our estimates average 2.93 million dependent contractors (10.2% of employment) in South Korea, ranging from 1.58 to 4.55 million (5.5–15.9%). Of these workers, a majority self-identified as self-employed without employees rather than as employees. South Korea’s share of dependent self-employed workers is higher than that observed in most European countries and continues to rise, contrasting with the overall decline in self-employment without employees. Dependent contractors are more prevalent among men, middle-aged/older workers, those with lower educational attainment, residents outside the capital region, and primary household earners. By industry, they are concentrated in transportation and warehousing, finance and insurance, and personal services; by occupation, in service and sales as well as craft occupations. Regardless of the identification method used, dependent contractors report significantly lower satisfaction with working conditions than most employees, with levels comparable to on-call workers and temporary agency or subcontracted workers. Comparisons with independent self-employed workers depend on how dependent contractors are identified. Broader definitions that include workers with weaker dependence show no significant difference between the two groups, while narrower definitions limited to those with stronger dependence reveal significantly lower satisfaction among dependent contractors. Our findings highlight the importance of careful indicator selection in the development of official statistics for dependent contractors and underscore the need to expand the scope of worker protection based on the substantive nature of work relationships rather than contractual form alone.