(1) Any employer who intends to establish a retirement allowance system shall establish a system that makes it possible to pay a retiring employee a prorated amount equivalent to average wages earned for 30 days for each year of his or her continuous service.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), any employer may, upon request by an employee due to a ground prescribed by Presidential Decree, such as housing purchases, pay such employee a retirement allowance for his or her continuous service period prior to his or her retirement. In such cases, the continuous service period to be used for the calculation of the amount of a retirement allowance accumulated thereafter shall be reckoned anew from the time when the balance is settled.