All South Korean firms will likely be required to join a retirement pension plan starting as early as 2020.

The Finance Ministry said Friday that it's reviewing the possibility of requiring companies with over 500 employees to have the retirement pension policy from 2016 and expanding this to all workplaces from 2020.

For smaller firms with fewer than 30 workers, the government is reviewing the possibility of providing subsidies to such firms that sign up for a pension fund created by the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service.

The retirement pension scheme was introduced in 2005. Some 86 percent of the 13-hundred South Korean workplaces with more than 500 employees have subscribed to one. 

The government will soon finalize comprehensive measures on retirement pension to this effect and will present the measures during an economy-related ministerial meeting as early as next week.