Korea to discuss next year’s minimum wage, employers likely to push for freeze

[Image source: Gettyimagesbank]

Korea will discuss the minimum wage level for next year during a meeting held by the Minimum Wage Commission in Sejong on Tuesday.

With all members in attendance, employer-side members are likely to demand a freeze in the minimum wage for next year during the eighth meeting. They are expected to present the minimum wage initially requested by the business community, as the Korea Enterprises Federation, one of the employer members of the commission, has recently reaffirmed its stance of no increase, considering businesses’ capabilities to pay wages.

Some speculate that the business community may even demand a cut, as the attendees failed to reach an agreement on the proposed application of the minimum wage by industry during the previous meeting.

Earlier, employee-side members initially proposed a minimum wage of 12,210 won ($9.34) per hour, which represents a 26.9 percent increase from this year‘s minimum wage of 9,620 won per hour and 2,010,580 won per month. They cited the need to revitalize domestic consumption, resolve wage inequality and reduce workers’ real wages. With the proposed minimum wage, the monthly salary would be 2,551,890 won when calculated based on 209 hours of work per month.

The minimum wage for the coming year is determined through discussions aimed at narrowing the gap between the initial proposals presented by the management-side and the worker-side.

If the increase is set to be more than 3.95 percent, the minimum wage next year will exceed 10,000 won.

The statutory deadline for this year’s minimum wage discussion is Thursday. The deadline has only been met nine times since 1988, when the commission first introduced the minimum wage system. Last year was the first time in eight years that the deadline was met since 2014.