Minimum Wage Committee should protect vulnerable workers first[Editorial]

Kwon Soon-won, a professor at Sookmyung Women\'s University who was appointed to serve as the steering committee member of the minimum wage committee, enters the meeting hall during the first all-party meeting of the minimum wage committee at the Government Sejong Building in Seoul on Nov. 21. Yonhap

Deliberations by the Minimum Wage Committee, which will determine the minimum wage for next year, began on May 21. This year, the minimum wage is expected to exceed 10,000 won, but difficulties are expected as the issue of "differential application" by industry, which has a large disagreement between labor and management, has emerged as a key agenda.

The committee is composed of 27 members, nine each from labor, management, and public interest. Lee In-jae, a professor of economics at Incheon National University, was elected as the new chairman, and Kwon Soon-won, a professor at Sookmyung Women's University, was appointed as the secretary of the public interest committee. However, the committee has been noisy since the first day's deliberation, which also served as the first meeting with each other, due to labor's opposition to pro-government public interest committee members. Regarding Kwon, the two major labor unions have argued, "He has taken the lead in introducing long working hours and job and performance-based wage systems by claiming to be the head of government committees, including the Future Labor Market Research Association and the Win-Win Wage Committee." It is reasonable to raise questions about a person who has been advising the Ministry of Labor's policy as the secretary of the public interest committee as he is in an important position in the decision-making of the Minimum Wage Committee. Kwon should be careful in his words and actions since he is labeled to have a pro-government tendency.

The minimum wage for next year will exceed 10,000 won if it is 140 won (approximately 1.4 percent) up from this year's minimum wage (9,860 won). For this reason, the issue of "differential application" by industry is a key agenda. After the Bank of Korea released a report in March suggesting ways to lower the minimum wage for the care sector, an over-the-counter dispute has already been taking place. At the meeting, another claim was raised by the user committee on the differential application by industry. Lee Myung-ro, head of the Human Resources Policy Division of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, said, "We hope that the minimum wage will be applied separately to the domestic service industry." However, the differential application of the minimum wage can undermine the purpose of the minimum wage system, which ensures a basic living for all workers. Does it mean to differentiate wages and break down the lower limit rather than increasing the number of domestic workers receiving the minimum wage?

Vulnerable people in high prices are struggling day by day. The hard-won minimum wage system should not be set back. The necessary discussion should not be to differentiate the minimum wage, but to embrace low-wage workers and special and platform workers who are not subject to the Labor Standards Act.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.