The national pension reform bill, which would require people to pay more, but also allow them to receive more, passed the National Assembly, green lighting the first pension reform in 18 years.

The bill was approved on Thursday with support from 193 out of 277 lawmakers in attendance, while 40 opposed and 44 abstained.

According to the revisions to the National Pension Act, the premium rate will rise zero-point-five percentage point annually for eight years starting 2026 from the current nine percent to 13 percent.

It is the first such increase since 1998.

The income replacement rate, which had previously been set to gradually revise down to 40 percent after the previous two rounds of reforms, will slightly rise to 43 percent next year.

The replacement rate, which once stood at 70 percent when the pension program was introduced in 1988, stands at 41-point-five percent this year.

Based on the revisions, the amount of premium a salaried worker, who receives a monthly wage of around three million won, would pay in their lifetime is estimated to rise by some 50 million won, or around 34-thousand U.S. dollars, while the amount they receive would increase by some 20 million won.

The welfare ministry forecast the revisions to help delay the pension fund depletion by 15 years from the previous projection of 2056 to 2071, on the premise that investment return target rises by one percentage point to five-point-five percent.