Central funds cover just 8.4% of firefighters’ pay

Gyeonggi Gov. Choo Mi-ae’s remarks comparing firefighting costs to a major drain on provincial finances have renewed scrutiny of a funding system in which local governments pay nearly nine-tenths of the fire service budget, despite firefighters’ national civil-service status.

Budgets for fire headquarters across the country’s 17 provincial and metropolitan governments total 8.6 trillion won ($6.4 billion) this year, according to figures from Gyeonggi Province.

Local governments cover 7.67 trillion won, or 89.3 percent, while the central government provides 923.9 billion won, or 10.7 percent.

The local share is even higher for personnel costs. Of the 6.51 trillion won budgeted for firefighters’ pay this year, 549.6 billion won, or 8.4 percent, is funded by the central government through fire safety subsidies. Local governments cover the remaining 91.6 percent.

The central government’s share of fire service budgets rose from about 7 percent in 2019 to 11.5 percent in 2020, when firefighters’ status was unified under the national civil service.

It peaked at 14.9 percent in 2021, then fell to 12.3 percent in 2022 and 12.4 percent in 2023. The share dropped to 10.1 percent in 2024, rebounded to 11.5 percent last year and fell to 10.7 percent this year.

The status change took effect in April 2020, after the government said it aimed to narrow regional disparities in firefighting services and improve working conditions.

But local governments retained primary responsibility for fire service organization, personnel management and budget administration.

The Local Autonomy Act also includes fire prevention, response and investigation, and rescue and emergency medical services among local government responsibilities. That framework has left local governments responsible for much of the funding, even as firefighters became national civil servants.

A Korean Association for Policy Studies analysis published in March 2025 classified 43 percent of firefighting duties as national responsibilities, 23 percent as shared between the central and local governments, and 34 percent as local responsibilities.

Gyeonggi argues that duties with a national component therefore account for 66 percent of the total, but central funding covers only 10.7 percent of the budget.