Foreign students on Nov. 6, 2025, wave at an event marking Ajou International Day around the lawn area of Ajou University in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do Province. (Lee Jeong-woo)

By Kang Gahui

Foreign workers in Korea this year will see vast improvements in treatment and administrative convenience.

This year's hourly minimum wage is KRW 10,320, up 2.9% from KRW 10,030 last year, raising the monthly wage for 40 hours a week (209 hours a month) from KRW 2,096,270 to KRW 2,156,880. This also means higher benefits in employment insurance such as subsidies for job seekers and maternity leave.

The quota for non-specialized workers is 191,000. The number of seasonal workers on the E-8 visa was raised to 109,000, up 13,000 from the previous year, to alleviate the depopulation of agricultural and fishing villages.

The quotas for the E-9 visa (80,000) under the Employment Permit System and the E-10 for maritime workers were frozen from last year's levels.

Employment regulations will be eased to promote balanced national development. The cap on the additional hiring of foreign workers by manufacturers based outside of the Seoul metropolitan area was raised from 20% to 30%.

"U-turn companies," or those that bring back operations to Korea from abroad, can hire such laborers regardless of size if they settle in a region outside of the capital. The cap on additional foreign staff of 50 was also scrapped.

A system allowing workers from abroad to conveniently report their employment information online was expanded on Jan. 2.

Expats can use the HiKorea website to extend or alter their residence status while reporting their employment information when making a reservation to visit an immigration office. Those who finish initial registration can report changes to their job information online.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor renamed "Labor Day" to "May Day" to promote a society that respects and recovers the value of work.

"The country has a constitutional duty to create workplaces that respect and protect all workers for who they are regardless of nationality or residential status," Minister Kim Young Hoon said. "To form an inclusive labor market without disparity, we will launch an integrated protection system for all foreign workers including seasonal."

kgh89@korea.kr