Doosan Group, a major South Korean conglomerate, said Thursday it will implement the so-called wage peak system in all its units starting next year, becoming the first local business group to do so.

The new wage system calls for employees to accept a reduced salary in exchange for working until the retirement age set by the company. The government is pushing public and private companies to adopt the system in an effort to help alleviate high youth unemployment.

According to group officials, a majority of Doosan affiliates have already implemented the new system, with the remainder set to introduce it next year.

"Although there still are some units that have yet to implement the salary peak system, we've finalized negotiations for all of them so that they will start following the new policy as of Jan. 1 next year," a Doosan official said. Other business groups, including Hyundai Motor Group and SK Group, have announced plans to execute the policy on a groupwide level without any details as to how they will negotiate the terms with their respective labor unions.

Up until now, less than half of the 378 affiliates under South Korea's top 30 conglomerates have adopted the wage peak system, but several major business groups have vowed to do so next year, moving in line with government efforts to tackle the high youth unemployment rate.

South Korea's finance minister earlier urged public firms to adopt the wage peak system by the end of this month as a means to create more jobs for the younger generation and rev up the country's sluggish growth.

Government data showed that the jobless rate for those aged 15-29 stood at 9.4 percent in July, much higher than the headline unemployment rate of 3.7 percent. (Yonhap)