Convenience Store Owners to Meet with People Power Party Next Week... "Discussing Late-Night Price Surcharges"

Strong Opposition to Minimum Wage Increase
Push to Raise Late-Night Item Prices by 5%
Convenience Store Headquarters Says "Legal Review Needed"

Products are displayed at a convenience store in Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Convenience store owners are pushing to introduce a 'surcharge system' that raises prices during late-night hours, and a meeting with the People Power Party is scheduled for next week.

On the 6th, Kye Sang-hyuk, president of the National Convenience Store Franchise Association (Jeonpyeonhyeop), said in a phone interview with Asia Economy, "The People Power Party proposed holding a meeting at the National Assembly with relevant government departments," adding, "If the government and convenience store headquarters do not come up with measures regarding the minimum wage increase, we will proceed with the surcharge system."

Jeonpyeonhyeop is an organization composed of franchisee (operator) councils from CU, GS25, 7-Eleven, and Emart24. They claim that they can no longer bear the labor cost burden caused by the minimum wage hike and intend to negotiate with convenience store headquarters to raise prices during late-night hours. Currently, the late-night operating hours defined in the Enforcement Decree of the Franchise Business Act are from midnight to 6 a.m. or from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., and they plan to increase prices by about 5% during these hours.

Jeonpyeonhyeop also stated that they cannot accept the current minimum wage determination structure. They said, "We cannot recognize the minimum wage effectively decided by public interest committee members who have no experience paying wages," demanding a restructuring of the decision-making process and the abolition of weekly holiday pay. Additionally, they called for the government to bear the card fees included in tobacco taxes and for the suspension of low-margin services such as transportation card charging, volume-based waste bag sales, public utility bill payments, and convenience store parcel services to reduce the workload of convenience store owners.

Convenience store headquarters are in a difficult position regarding the demands from the store owners' groups. A representative from the Korea Convenience Store Industry Association said, "We have not yet received any related discussion requests from headquarters," adding, "It is necessary to legally review whether the late-night surcharge system is legally permissible and whether applying a uniform 5% increase would constitute collusion or other legal issues."