Care worker – a job too unstable to rely on for a living

“A Record of My Labor” Series: The story of 70-year-old Kim Soon-shim

 

By Kim Soon-shim

Published Sept. 16, 2025

Translated by Marilyn Hook

 

I started working when I was 14 years old. First at a sweatshop in the old Peace Market area along Cheonggyecheon stream, then shift work at Tokyu Hotel. And, except for a few years I spent concentrating on child-rearing shortly after getting married, I’ve continued to work hard in the long years since. I ran a comic book café for a while and worked at a bossam restaurant and a fried-chicken shop.

Author Kim Soon-shim, left, when she was a middle schooler full of dreams. “I’m a caregiver who wants to make the world a more equal and better place. I write about care and labor in Different Bodies’ Care Worker Life Story Group and speak out against the inequality in the world." (Photo credit: Kim Soon-shim)

My family was so poor during my childhood that I, the youngest child, didn’t get to finish middle school. However, by starting my day earlier than others and working until later, I’ve been able to make a living as well as anyone, with no regrets [about my education]. However, this work-bound lifestyle left me with hardly any free time. Spending time on leisure activities isn't something I have much experience with.

 

Around the age of 60, when my children were all grown, I closed down the business I'd been running for over 20 years. Since then, with the certifications I'd earned in my spare time, I’ve been working in my final job: care worker. It's a job that both helps me make ends meet and offers me a sense of fulfillment.

The awful treatment of care workers

I've been doing this for ten years now. It's a valuable and rewarding career, but I don't feel it gets proper recognition from society. Our pay still hovers around minimum wage, despite the fact that caregiving is an essential service for the elderly.

 

If you work less than three hours a day or 60 hours a month as an in-home caregiver, you won't be eligible for the four major social insurances or even severance pay. If you feel unwell and ask for time off, you might instead be fired: "Ma'am, if this work is hard for you, just stay home."

 

Due to a lack of understanding about care work, we are often asked to do household chores (we are not housekeepers) and tasks unrelated to our work, like the rest of a family’s laundry and cleaning. Elder care encompasses preparing meals for the elderly, ensuring medication is taken, organizing the patient's surroundings, preventing falls, and maximizing their remaining abilities in order to help them live out the rest of their lives. However, the families of elderly people living alone often come over and prepare not just one meal, but three, and leave the resulting pile of dirty dishes for the care worker to wash.

 

Elderly home care centers are supposed to serve as a bridge between the care recipients, caregivers, and their families, but the reality is different. To ensure that no potential recipient misses out, the needs of families are often prioritized over the rights and working conditions of care workers. Despite being at the core of caregiving, care workers are not even guaranteed a base salary, and receiving payment only for hours worked makes caregiving work an unstable foundation to rely on for your livelihood.

 

Seoul closed its pitifully few support facilities for in-home care workers

 

The lack of a social safety net also makes it difficult to receive adequate compensation or support if we are injured at work. Care workers also experience significant stress and depression due to the difficulties of caring for dementia patients, and there are few places where they can vent their feelings.

 

There used to be a place where we could at least find respite and run support groups: eight support facilities for in-home care workers, connected to Seoul city’s Senior Care Worker Support Center and located throughout the city. However, Mayor Oh Se-hoon had even those few establishments shut down when he took office. I simply cannot understand a public policy to eliminate facilities that there were never even close to enough of in the first place.

 

Over the past ten years as a care worker, I've worked to increase awareness of care work and improve the treatment we receive as well as the long-term care system. I've visited the National Assembly to speak and gone to elder welfare departments at multiple district offices and City Hall. I've visited Gwanghwamun Square, Cheongnyangni Station, Mia Station, and Changdong Station to raise awareness [through press conferences or small demonstrations] of the importance of care. However, I have seen few results. The world's barriers are high, and there's still a long way to go to ensure fair treatment for caregivers.

 

Taking the stage with a passion for making a future of better care

 

Last year, I took the stage in I Don't Care, a care worker play. The play, which we performed at the Daehangno Ieum Art Hall on December 15, 2024, further fueled my passion. The content of I Don't Care was based on writings we had done at the Care Worker Life Story Group run by the civic group "Different Bodies." My fellow care workers and I spoke out on stage about the unfair realities we face and our labor rights.

 

 The play also explores the difficulties faced by care recipients and their children, as well as the "death with dignity" that elderly people choose in the absence of care. We hoped that it would cause our society to reflect deeply on the complex issues surrounding care, old age, and death.

Author Kim Soon-shim on stage in the play I Don’t Care (Photo credit: Different Bodies)

As it turned out, putting on a play starring caregivers in their 60s and 70s wasn't easy. Even after trying and trying to memorize our lines, we often forgot them, and we kept getting confused about the stage layout. However, we wanted to convey that care work, which supports vulnerable bodies and elderly lives and involves sharing hearts and minds, is itself an important conveyor of life’s warmth.  We also wanted to raise the issue of the harsh labor conditions faced by workers who provide this crucial care, which include unfair demands for additional work and sudden dismissals. We hoped that our desire for the universal experiences of old age and death to be dignified processes would spread to others, and that care workers’ small voices would resonate widely.

 

Seeing the audience members' eyes well up with tears after the performance, I knew our efforts had not been in vain and felt a deep sense of accomplishment. So many experiences I'd accumulated as a caregiver became the material and dialogue for the play, and the audience responded enthusiastically. My passion for creating a better future for care fuels me.

 

I'm 70 years old. My two children have created their own families, and often when I look at my granddaughters, my heart is full and I feel as if all the years that passed have paid off. My lifetime of hard work put my children through college and made it possible for them to get married. I've lived a fulfilling life that I’m proud of.

 

But I don't want to remain silent just because I'm old. Or rather, I can't. What is most important is that I remain someone who wants to learn and write. I want to continue writing for Different Bodies’ Care Worker Life Story Group, and through that, to continue raising awareness about inequality and discrimination, and the importance of labor rights and care work. I want to create a world where care workers are treated with respect, a world where poor and sick elderly people can live and die with dignity.

 

After performing in the play I Don't Care, a passion to see such a world began to blossom further within me, and that passion gives me more life.

 

Original Article: https://ildaro.com/10275