Open Decision Ledger · Labour & industrial accidents
A public body's performance bonus within the average wage base
Supreme Court, Oct. 12, 2018, 2015Du36157 (judgment)
Case name: 평균임금정정불승인및보험급여차액부지급처분취소
Official text on the National Law Information Center
Question
Is a management-evaluation performance bonus paid by a public enterprise or quasi-government agency to be included in the wages on which the average wage is calculated, and does the fact that its payment or rate may vary with the evaluation result alone make it something other than remuneration for work?
Holding
It does. The average wage base means money the employer pays as the price of work, paid to the worker continuously and regularly and carrying a duty to pay imposed on the employer by a collective agreement, employment rules, pay regulations, an employment contract or labour practice. A management-evaluation performance bonus has the nature of such wages where it is paid continuously and regularly with its recipients and conditions settled, and the possibility that the evaluation result may change whether or at what rate it is paid does not by itself take it out of the wage. Here, the remaining performance bonus Korea Appraisal Board paid each year on the government-set rate and under the criteria and calculation method in its pay regulations and internal evaluation manual, KRW 2,931,000 paid to the claimant's son on 16 July 2008, was held to be included in the total wages for the average wage.
Summary of the holding, verbatim
경영평가성과급이 계속적·정기적으로 지급되고 지급대상, 지급조건 등이 확정되어 있어 사용자에게 지급의무가 있다면, 이는 근로의 대가로 지급되는 임금의 성질을 가지므로 평균임금 산정의 기초가 되는 임금에 포함된다고 보아야 한다. 경영실적 평가결과에 따라 그 지급 여부나 지급률이 달라질 수 있다고 하더라도 그러한 이유만으로 경영평가성과급이 근로의 대가로 지급된 것이 아니라고 볼 수 없다.
Unofficial English translation
If a management evaluation performance bonus is paid continuously and regularly and the recipients and payment conditions are fixed so that the employer is obligated to pay it, then it possesses the nature of wages paid as consideration for labor and must be regarded as included in the wages that form the basis for calculating the average wage. Even though whether to pay or the rate of payment may vary depending on the results of the evaluation of business performance, by that reason alone the management evaluation performance bonus cannot be regarded as having not been paid as consideration for labor.
Disposition
Dismissed Stated in the decision
상고를 기각한다. 상고비용은 피고가 부담한다.
Unofficial English translation
The appeal is dismissed. The costs of the final appeal shall be borne by the defendant.
Form of the test
Elements stated Stated in the decision
평균임금 산정의 기초가 되는 임금은 사용자가 근로의 대가로 근로자에게 지급하는 금품으로서, 근로자에게 계속적·정기적으로 지급되고 단체협약, 취업규칙, 급여규정, 근로계약, 노동관행 등에 의하여 사용자에게 그 지급의무가 지워져 있는 것을 말한다
Unofficial English translation
The wages that form the basis for calculating the average wage mean the monies paid by the employer to the employee as consideration for labor, which are paid to the employee continuously and regularly and for which the employer is obligated to make payment by virtue of a collective agreement, rules of employment, payroll regulations, an employment contract, labor practices, and the like
Factors
- 경영평가성과급이 계속적·정기적으로 지급되고 지급대상, 지급조건 등이 확정되어 있어 사용자에게 지급의무가 있다면
- 경영실적 평가결과에 따라 그 지급 여부나 지급률이 달라질 수 있다고 하더라도 그러한 이유만으로
- 이에 한국감정원은 매년 정부가 정한 성과급 지급률을 기초로 보수규정과 내부경영평가편람에서 정한 기준과 계산방식에 따라 소속 직원들에게 잔여 성과상여금을 지급하였으며
- 갑이 업무상 재해로 사망한 이후 퇴직금을 지급할 때에도 위와 같이 지급한 성과상여금을 모두 포함하여 평균임금을 산정한 점
- 사용자에게 지급의무가 지워져 있으므로 근로의 대가로 지급되는 임금의 성질을 가진다고 보아야 하므로
Unofficial English translation
• If a management evaluation performance bonus is paid continuously and regularly and the recipients and payment conditions are fixed so that the employer is obligated to pay it, then
• even though whether to pay or the rate of payment may vary depending on the results of the evaluation of business performance, by that reason alone
• Accordingly, the Korea Appraisal Board paid the residual performance bonus to its employees every year on the basis of the rate of performance bonus set by the Government, in accordance with the standards and calculation methods prescribed in the compensation rules and the internal management evaluation manual, and
• the fact that, even when the retirement allowance was paid after A died from an industrial accident, the average wage was calculated by including all of the performance bonus paid as described above
• since the obligation to pay it is imposed upon the employer, it must be regarded as possessing the nature of wages paid as consideration for labor, and therefore
Relation to precedent
Follows earlier decisions Stated in the decision
대법원 2001. 10. 23. 선고 2001다53950 판결 등 참조
Unofficial English translation
See, e.g., Supreme Court Decision 2001Da53950 decided October 23, 2001.
Decisions referred to
[1] 대법원 1997. 5. 28. 선고 96누15084 판결(공1997하, 1893), 대법원 1999. 2. 9. 선고 97다56235 판결(공1999상, 451), 대법원 2001. 10. 23. 선고 2001다53950 판결(공2001하, 2529), 대법원 2013. 4. 11. 선고 2012다48077 판결
Burden of proof
Not addressed Not in the decision
Open question and revisit condition
Where the government sets a different performance bonus rate each year and the employer's regulations leave part of the rate to internal evaluation, at what point do the recipients and conditions cease to be settled?
A judgment reading the test in Article 2(1)(6) of the Labour Standards Act as excluding performance-linked pay would require this entry to be read again. Any change to the government's performance evaluation scheme under the Public Institutions Operation Act, or to Article 5(ii) of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act which fixes what counts as wages for benefits, also calls for a fresh reading.
Cross-family AI independent reading & axis check
7 of 8 axes matched GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI, codex CLI) · 2026-10-25
A reader from another model family (GPT-6 Astra), given the official text but not the primary reading, agreed on 7 of the 8 axes; the readings differed on axis 8 (open question and revisit condition).
Axis 8 (Open question and revisit condition): Primary “Where the government sets a different performance bonus rate each year and the employer's regulations leave part of the rate to internal evaluation, at what point do the recipients and conditions cease to be settled?” vs Independent “When would a history of bonus payments alone establish a binding labor practice if no written rule imposes a payment obligation?”
The primary reading asks at what point varying government-set rates stop allowing recipients and conditions to be treated as settled, while the independent reading asks when a bonus practice alone creates a binding labour practice without a written rule.
경영평가성과급이 계속적·정기적으로 지급되고 지급대상, 지급조건 등이 확정되어 있어 사용자에게 지급의무가 있다면, 이는 근로의 대가로 지급되는 임금의 성질을 가지므로 평균임금 산정의 기초가 되는 임금에 포함된다고 보아야 한다. 경영실적 평가결과에 따라 그 지급 여부나 지급률이 달라질 수 있다고 하더라도 그러한 이유만으로 경영평가성과급이 근로의 대가로 지급된 것이 아니라고 볼 수 없다.Raw responses and comparison record: Protocol · Blind readings (JSONL) · Axis comparison (JSONL) · SHA-256 (JSON)
Lower-court contrast & scope of application
Lower-court reading vs. Supreme Court holding
Lower-court context: The Seoul High Court, in its judgment of 19 December 2014 (2014Nu62908), accepted the claimant's suit against the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service. It held that the remaining performance bonus Korea Appraisal Board paid the claimant's son, who died of a work-related accident on 8 November 2008, was part of the total wages on which the average wage is computed, and that the refusal to re-determine the average wage and pay the difference in survivors' allowance and funeral expenses was unlawful.
Supreme Court standard: The Supreme Court found no error in that reading. The remaining performance bonus was paid continuously and regularly with its recipients and conditions fixed, so it carried the nature of remuneration for work, and the possibility that the government-set rate could vary did not make it non-wage. It dismissed the appeal and placed the costs on the losing party, on the unanimous opinion of the Justices.
Distinguishing conditions
- A bonus paid to employees without a duty to pay, where no collective agreement, employment rules, pay regulations, employment contract or labour practice fixes the payment.
- A payment that is not continuous and regular in the first place, since the Court's test requires continuous and regular payment alongside settled recipients and conditions.
- A public enterprise's bonus whose recipients and conditions are not settled because the employer's own regulations fix neither the criteria nor the calculation method.
Record verification notes
Set the payment against the four points the Court named: continuous and regular payment, settled recipients and conditions, an imposed duty to pay, and remuneration for work. Then gather the provisions that govern the scheme, here Article 32(2) and Article 33(3) of the pay regulations and the 2008 internal management evaluation manual, and check whether the rate applied each year can be traced to the government's evaluation result under Article 11(1) of the former Act on the Management of Government-Invested Institutions or Article 48(1) of the Public Institutions Operation Act. Also see how the employer treated the same bonuses when it paid retirement benefits, since the Board included all of them in the average wage.
From the official text
Points at issue
[1] 경영평가성과급이 계속적·정기적으로 지급되고 지급대상, 지급조건 등이 확정되어 있어 사용자에게 지급의무가 있는 경우, 평균임금 산정의 기초가 되는 임금에 포함되는지 여부(적극) 및 이때 경영실적 평가결과에 따라 그 지급 여부나 지급률이 달라질 수 있다는 이유만으로 근로의 대가로 지급된 것이 아니라고 볼 수 있는지 여부(소극) [2] 갑이 한국감정원에 입사하여 근무하던 중 업무상 재해로 사망하여 근로복지공단이 갑의 유족인 을에게 유족급여 및 장의비를 지급하였는데, 을이 근로복지공단을 상대로 평균임금을 산정할 때 성과상여금 등을 누락하였다면서 평균임금 정정 및 보험급여차액 지급을 청구한 사안에서, 한국감정원이 정부가 정한 성과급 지급률을 기초로 보수규정과 내부경영평가편람에 따라 갑에게 지급한 잔여 성과상여금이 평균임금 산정의 기초가 되는 임금 총액에 포함된다고 본 원심판단이 정당하다고 한 사례
Unofficial English translation
[1] Whether a management evaluation performance bonus, which is paid continuously and regularly and for which the recipients and payment conditions are fixed so that the employer is obligated to pay it, is included in the wages that form the basis for calculating the average wage (affirmative), and whether the fact that whether to pay or the rate of payment may vary depending on the results of the evaluation of business performance, by that reason alone, means that it cannot be regarded as having been paid as consideration for labor (negative) [2] A case where A, while working at the Korea Appraisal Board, died from an industrial accident and the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service paid a survivors' benefit and funeral expenses to B, A's surviving family member, and B brought a claim against the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service for the correction of the average wage and for payment of the difference in insurance benefits, alleging that performance bonuses and the like had been omitted in the calculation of the average wage, in which the Court held that the court below was correct in finding that the residual performance bonus paid to A by the Korea Appraisal Board on the basis of the rate of performance bonus set by the Government, in accordance with the compensation rules and the internal management evaluation manual, is included in the total amount of wages that form the basis for calculating the average wage
Summary of the holding
[1] 평균임금 산정의 기초가 되는 임금은 사용자가 근로의 대가로 근로자에게 지급하는 금품으로서, 근로자에게 계속적·정기적으로 지급되고 단체협약, 취업규칙, 급여규정, 근로계약, 노동관행 등에 의하여 사용자에게 그 지급의무가 지워져 있는 것을 말한다. 경영평가성과급이 계속적·정기적으로 지급되고 지급대상, 지급조건 등이 확정되어 있어 사용자에게 지급의무가 있다면, 이는 근로의 대가로 지급되는 임금의 성질을 가지므로 평균임금 산정의 기초가 되는 임금에 포함된다고 보아야 한다. 경영실적 평가결과에 따라 그 지급 여부나 지급률이 달라질 수 있다고 하더라도 그러한 이유만으로 경영평가성과급이 근로의 대가로 지급된 것이 아니라고 볼 수 없다. [2] 갑이 한국감정원에 입사하여 근무하던 중 업무상 재해로 사망하여 근로복지공단이 갑의 유족인 을에게 유족급여 및 장의비를 지급하였는데, 을이 근로복지공단을 상대로 평균임금을 산정할 때 성과상여금 등을 누락하였다면서 평균임금 정정 및 보험급여차액 지급을 청구한 사안에서, 정부는 한국감정원이 정부산하기관에 해당하는 기간 동안에는 구 정부산하기관 관리기본법(2007. 1. 19. 법률 제8258호 공공기관의 운영에 관한 법률 부칙 제2조 제2호로 폐지)에 의한 경영실적 평가결과에 따라, 공공기관의 운영에 관한 법률 시행 이후에는 공공기관의 운영에 관한 법률에 의한 경영실적 평가결과에 따라 한국감정원에 적용되는 성과급 지급률을 정하였고, 이에 한국감정원은 매년 정부가 정한 성과급 지급률을 기초로 보수규정과 내부경영평가편람에서 정한 기준과 계산방식에 따라 소속 직원들에게 잔여 성과상여금을 지급하였으며, 갑이 업무상 재해로 사망한 이후 퇴직금을 지급할 때에도 위와 같이 지급한 성과상여금을 모두 포함하여 평균임금을 산정한 점 등에 비추어, 한국감정원이 갑에게 지급한 잔여 성과상여금은 계속적·정기적으로 지급되고, 지급대상과 지급조건 등이 확정되어 있어 사용자에게 지급의무가 지워져 있으므로 근로의 대가로 지급되는 임금의 성질을 가진다고 보아야 하므로, 잔여 성과상여금이 평균임금 산정의 기초가 되는 임금 총액에 포함된다고 본 원심판단이 정당하다고 한 사례.
Order
상고를 기각한다. 상고비용은 피고가 부담한다.
Unofficial English translation
The appeal is dismissed. The costs of the final appeal shall be borne by the defendant.
Provisions referred to
[1] 근로기준법 제2조 제1항 제6호 [2] 구 정부산하기관 관리기본법(2007. 1. 19. 법률 제8258호 공공기관의 운영에 관한 법률 부칙 제2조 제2호로 폐지) 제11조 제1항(현행 공공기관의 운영에 관한 법률 제48조 제1항 참조), 공공기관의 운영에 관한 법률 제48조 제1항, 산업재해보상보험법 제5조 제2호, 근로기준법 제2조 제1항 제6호
Read 2026-10-25 · Cross-read 2026-10-25. All quotes matched against the official text. The Chinese-character placeholders the court used for anonymised parties are given in their Korean readings, and parenthetical Chinese-character glosses are omitted.
Every entry is published only after all quotes have been matched character by character against the official text, and audited by an independent second reading from a different model family across all eight axes. Both agreed axes and text-grounded interpretive divergences are recorded openly. The ledger is a research record, not an assessment of the court or advice on any matter.
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