Next year's minimum wage is set at KRW 9,620, up 5% higher from this year's. (Starbucks Korea)

By Lee Kyoung Mi and Lee Jihae

The minimum wage for next year has been set at KRW 9,620 per hour, up 5% from this year's.

The Minimum Wage Commission, an affiliate of the Ministry of Employment and Labor that deliberates on and decides the wage, on June 29 made the decision at a conference held at Government Complex-Sejong. 

Next year's minimum wage is KRW 460 (5%) higher than this year's KRW 9,160. Based on the 40-hour workweek, the monthly wage will be KRW 2,010,580. Under the Labor Standards Act, the minimum wage applies to everyone regardless of job status or nationality.

The commission has 27 members with nine members each from labor, management and the public. It said, "The 5% increase was chosen by adding the outlooks for this year's economic growth (2.7%) and consumer inflation (4.5%) and subtracting the projection for employment growth (2.2%)."

Over the past five years, the minimum wage was KRW 7,530 in 2018, KRW 8,350 in 2019, KRW 8,590 in 2020, KRW 8,720 in 2021 and KRW 9,160 this year.

For the first time since 2014, the commission met the June 29 deadline for legal deliberation on the wage.

Since the minimum wage system was launched in 1988, it has seen 36 deliberations and the most recent was the ninth time that the deadline was met.

km137426@korea.kr