Unmanned convenience stores hit 3,500 due to minimum wage burden

A customer scans items at self check-out in an unmanned convenience store. [Photo by Lee Jin-han]

After a 41.6 percent increase in the new minimum wage over the past five years, discussions on setting the minimum wage for next year are currently going through difficulties in Korea.

The local convenience store industry, which is sensitive to minimum wage hikes, is increasingly replacing human employees with machines due to labor cost pressures. The number of unmanned stores with self-checkout systems has increased 17-fold in the past four years.

According to industry sources on Sunday, the four major convenience stores - 7-Eleven, Emart 24, CU and GS25 - operate 3,530 unmanned stores as of the end of June. This number includes stores that are completely unmanned and hybrid stores that are only unmanned at certain times, such as at night.

The number of unmanned convenience stores has exceeded 3,500 this year for the first time since 2019, when 208 stores came up with self-checkout terminals as the previous government began sharply raising the minimum wage.

The minimum wage committee under the Ministry of Employment and Labor will hold two full meetings this week. The statutory deadline for deliberations was June 29, but discussions have been delayed this year as labor-management conflicts have intensified. Considering the administrative procedures, the committee may decide on a recommendation by June 13.

Currently, labor and management are demanding a minimum wage of 12,000 won and 9,700 won for next year, respectively. Labor and management have twice announced revisions, but the gap is still 2,300 won. In the end, it is likely to be decided through arbitration rather than labor-management agreement.

The minimum wage committee puts the proposal to a vote of the public interest member of the committee if no agreement is reached between worker and employer representatives. From 2014 to last year, six out of nine times, the committee determined a minimum wage with public interest proposals.