One of the distinctive features of labor mobility among science and engineering research manpower in Korea is that the labor flows uni-directionally from government-funded research institutes (GFRIs) to academic institutes. This paper conjectures that such a mobility is due to the relatively low economic status of the GFRI researchers. A regression analysis shows that the wage is not lower in GFRIs, which seemingly defies the conjecture. But it turns out that the economic status, when measured in terms of life-time earnings, is significantly lower for researchers in GFRIs. The main cause of such a disparity is the shorter work-life of GFRI researchers: they have to retire earlier than college professors. A recent policy measure enacted in 2012 extends the mandatory retirement age for GFRI researchers is expected to attenuate the uni-directionality of mobility by balancing life-time earnings of GFRI researhers.