The distinguishing feature for many workers in South Korea is contractual ¿ and often involuntary ¿ retirement at a young age (mid-50s for most workers) followed by precarious and low-paying self-employment or contract work.This book examines how this retirement arrangement arose, and the policy reforms that have been both undertaken and proposed to allow workers to remain employed longer. Using a multi-disciplinary and comparative approach, the authors study contractual mandatory retirement trends and policies in South Korea, and in doing so illuminate the political, social, legal, economic and labour market implications of this widespread practice.