Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

During the last ten years, social service provision in Korea has dramatically increased as a result of the establishment of long-term care insurance and universal free-child care policy. However, The job conditions of social service workers and the quality of social services has been criticized for their sub-standard quality. The social service market is characterized by suppliers of small-scale businesses and low-paid jobs. While it has been assumed that the the problem lies with the agencies, there has been a lack of empirical studies into the detailed relationship between the agencies and the quality of employment. Data were collected from 4083 social service organizations for empirical analysis. The quality of employment, as dependent variables are composed of four factors, there are : wages, welfare programs, training programs, participation rate of social insurances . Independent variables are composed of six factors, these are : a type of agency, size of workers, area of services, location, ownership, age of organizations.

The result shows that there is a direct relationship between the social service agencies and the job quality of workers. It shows that smaller-scale recently established for-profit agencies in particular have a negative connection with the quality of employment. The time of establishment also played an significant role, with agencies established earlier. The implication of these results were discussed in relation with Korean social service policy and quasi-market strategy.