노동수요 측면의 임금보조정책 연구

A Study on Demand-side Wage Subsidy

고용창출효과를 제고하기 위해서 노동 수요 측면의 임금보조를 현행 세액공제 방식에서 사회보험료감면 방식으로 대체해야 한다는 주장이 지속적으로 제기되고 있는 상황에서, 본 연구는 이론분석을 통해 이러한 주장의 타당성을 과학적으로 검증하기 위해 수행되었다. 분석 결과, 사회보험료감면 방식의 우월 여부는 사회보험 사각지대 존재 여부에 따라 다르게 나타나는데, 사각지대가 존재하지 않는 경우 사회보험료감면 방식이 고용창출 측면에서 세액공제 방식보다 우월하나, 사각지대가 존재하는 경우에는 사회보험료감면 방식의 우월성이 보장될 수 없다. 따라서 사회보험료감면 방식의 우월성을 구현하기 위해서는 사회보험 사각지대를 최소화함으로써 모든 기업이 임금보조 혜택을 받을 수 있는 토대를 마련하는 것이 긴요하다. 또한 기업별 고용여건(임금수준, 고용반응도 등)을 고려하여 감면비율을 차등적용함으로써 고용창출효과 극대화를 도모할 필요가 있다.

As the 'jobless growth' is developing into a worldwide phenomenon, many countries try to recover a virtuous relationship between the growth and employment using various wage subsidy programs. This study focuses on wage subsidy to employers, labor demand-side wage subsidy for which one can think of two types-a tax credit(a flat wage subsidy) and a social insurance premium exemption(a proportional wage subsidy). For job creation, Korean government reintroduced a tax credit to small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) which have increased their employment level in 2010. But many experts has continuously insisted that it should be replaced with a social insurance premium exemption arguing only a few SMEs benefit from the tax credit as most of them are actually not paying any corporate or general income tax bills. However, as the insurance premium exemption accompanies an increase in the amount of budget with the coverage widen, one cannot confirm its cost effectiveness over the tax credit. This paper aims to provide a theoretical analysis to derive some formal conditions under which a social insurance premium exemption creates more jobs than a tax credit does given a budget constraint. We show that the former's dominance over the latter depends on whether there exists a dead zone of social insurance or not. If there does not exist a dead zone, a social insurance premium exemption is more desirable in many cases, whereas one cannot guarantees its dominance over a tax credit if there exists a dead zone. Therefore in order to realize its dominance, the government should minimize a dead zone so that most SMEs effectively benefit from the insurance premium exemption. In addition, applying discriminative exemption rates which reflect each firm's job conditions such as wage level and labor demand/supply sensitivity, the government try to enhance job creation effect.