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A a skimpily-dressed waitress serving customers in a beer shop.
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Restaurants featuring nubile young female servers see spike in popularity
Ms. No, 21, recently landed a job at a restaurant in southern Seoul after facing the stiff competition of 30 girls applying for each spot. It is not an ordinary server’s job, but high-paying and, well, unique: Ms. No has to wear a uniform consisting of a skimpy tank top and pink hot pants. She takes home 2 million won (US$2,300) each month for working eight hours a day, five days a week. This represents an hourly wage of about 10,000 won, two or three times higher than minimum wage. "I don’t care about the uniform, since it is not that excessive," she said, adding that this kind of fashion can be seen on the streets of the city in the summer. Such restaurants or beer shops where scantily-clad female servers wait on tables are gaining popularity in Seoul.One female office worker, 34, confessed that she was embarrassed to find that she was the only female customer in a beer shop where skimpily-dressed waitresses were serving food and drinks. She said that, as a woman, she did not feel comfortable seeing women having to dress like that and serve customers. Such shops do not employ just any woman. Many of these businesses have quite strict qualifications. One such franchise requires applicants to be between 20 and 27 years of age, with a height of over 160 cm. Resumes submitted without a photograph are tossed in the trash. Most waitresses are college students seeking better-paying work compared to what they could earn at a coffee shop or convenience store. A ballet student at a Seoul university, working in one of these establishments, said, "This work is cut out for someone who likes fun and entertainment. I hope I can work here as a manager when I get older." However, the girls must face the nature of the industry: customers want fresh faces all the time. One such beer shop owner said, "The work is usually contract-based. Waitresses change every five or six months." A civic group official said that the emergence of this brand of business represents women being reduced to a commercial product. "We need a change in culture, so that we can prevent such commercialism from spreading further." According to statistics unveiled by a job recruitment company, however, 49.2 percent of 1,359 part-time workers surveyed said they were receiving less than the national minimum wage of 3,480 won per hour, suggesting that alternative high-paid work will continue to hold appeal. Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
