S. Korea Raises Minimum Wage by 2.75%
07-1-2009 by dotorious | » Posted in News/Activism
South Korea’s minimum wage for next year has been set at 4,110 won (about $3.22 at US$1=W1,277) per hour, up 2.75 percent from this year. That brings the daily minimum wage to W32,880 for an eight-hour working day. That’s $25.75 for a full day’s work.
This represents the lowest increase in more than 10 years, the lowest since Korea adopted the minimum wage system in 1986 and first implemented in 1988.
The Minimum Wage Council said representatives from labor, management and government agreed to the increase after a marathon overnight meeting that lasted early Tuesday morning. Management had called for a 5.8% reduction in the minimum wage, while labor originally demanded an 28.7% increase.
The council said about 2.56 million workers will benefit from the minimum wage rise. Put differently, about 2.56 million workers in Korea make $3.22 an hour!
Labor called for increasing the minimum wage to at least half of the average wage “in consideration of the poor state of the country’s social safety net” (Korea Times), but management actually called for a cut for the first time, arguing that small companies have been facing difficulties in catching up with the rising trend in the minimum wage.
The KCTU (Korea Confederation of Trade Unions), one of the two umbrella labor unions, said in a statement that the 2.75 percent increase is no better than a reduction, given that consumer prices in May posted a year-on-year increase of 3.6 percent.
The FKTU (Federation of Korean Trade Unions) also said, “Forcing workers earning the least to sacrifice in the name of helping economic recovery and strengthening corporate competitiveness is extremely… inhumane.”
How this compares internationally? (Exchange rates as of 2008)
S. Korea: $3.62
Japan: $6.09-7.43
US: $7.25
UK: $10.60
France: $12.80
Mexico: $4.79
Sources: The Korea Times, The Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Daily, and The Hankyoreh (in Korean).
