The minimum wage for next year has been set at 10,700 won per hour.
This is an increase of 380 won, or 3.7%, from this year's minimum wage.
When converted to a monthly salary, this amounts to 2,236,300 won, an increase of approximately 79,000 won.
The minimum wage increase rate, which was 5% in 2023, remained in the 1% to 2% range for the following three years before rising back to the 3% range this time.
It is estimated that 3 million workers are affected by the minimum wage.
Those who receive the minimum wage argued that with the recent high inflation rate, a 3.7% increase is effectively a wage cut.
[Lee Hong-jun / Irregular Postal Worker (Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union): For irregular workers or part-timers like us, the minimum wage is effectively our maximum wage. If it increases by such a small amount, it becomes extremely difficult to make a living...]
Self-employed business owners expressed their concerns, stating that they are already under significant pressure due to rising material costs, and that an increase in the minimum wage would push them to their limits.
[Choi Cha-su / Restaurant Owner: Self-employed people are in a very difficult situation these days. As the minimum hourly wage goes up, the number of employees we can afford decreases.]
Amid dissatisfaction from both labor and management sectors, the Minimum Wage Commission has officially recommended that the government improve the minimum wage system, including the application of the minimum wage to contract-based workers, as previously reported exclusively by SBS.
During this year's Minimum Wage Commission, the issue of applying the minimum wage to contract-based workers, such as delivery riders, was discussed as an agenda item for the first time in history, but it was rejected due to opposition from the management side.
[Kwon Soon-won / Chair of the Minimum Wage Commission: We have recommended that the Ministry of Employment and Labor take responsibility for everything from setting the agenda to the content of the discussions within a task force, taking the current reality into account.]
Kwon Soon-won, Chair of the Minimum Wage Commission, emphasized that since the framework of the minimum wage has remained largely unchanged for nearly 40 years, there are parts that no longer align with reality, and the government must review the system as a whole.
Reported by Jeon Hyeong-u | Video by Kang Dong-chul and Lee Jae-young | Video Editing by Park Na-young | Produced by SBS Digital News
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