Listen to Objections About Minimum Wage

The Minimum Wage Review Commission has decided to raise the minimum wage 9.2 percent and have it take effect by the end of next year, a decision arrived at despite the fact that the labor members of the commission had gotten up and left. The number looks like there is going to be a big increase, but it is in fact a reduction when you consider that the 40-hour workweek program will begin spreading in July. In protest labor representatives to the commission resigned, and the labor movement is reacting strongly, among other things calling for the resignation of Labor Minister Kim Dae Hwan.

Labor's anger is natural. Minimum wages are determined by the hour. The workweek is being cut down by four hours, and since there are monthly days off and for women monthly physiological leave, the decision did not take that into account. At first the business side of the commission proposed a 3 percent increase, the level at which prices are rising. Later it proposed a 7.7 percent increase, but if you consider that the workweek will be changed to a 40-hour one that would be the same as cutting pay by W68,000. The 9.2 percent increase the commission finally arrived at ends up being a reduction of W58,313 a month.

Workers who work 40 hours a week will now earn W647,900 a month. That is a mere 57 percent of the W1,135,000 need by an individual 29 year-old worker every month to survive. The 40-hour workweek was introduced to improve working people's quality of life, but to workers receiving minimum wage it is turning into a disaster.

The minimum wage rose an average of 13.2 percent every year since 2000. That was part of the process of normalizing the minimum wage that had long existed in name only. As a result of the commission's decision, however, average pay for workers receiving minimum wage will go down again, from 39 to 34 percent. That will make life even more difficult for irregular workers, and at a time when social disparity is already becoming more serious without this. The labor minister should listen to labor's objection and reconsider the minimum wage.

The Hankyoreh, 1 July 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]