Convenience Store Owners Angry Over Minimum Wage Hike... "Pushing for Late-Night Price Surcharge"

Demand for 5% Price Increase During Late Night Hours
Convenience Store Industry Association "Legal Review Needed"
Meeting with People Power Party Scheduled for Next Week

Products are displayed at a convenience store in Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Convenience store owners are opposing next year's minimum wage increase and are pushing to introduce a late-night surcharge system that raises product prices during nighttime hours.

According to the convenience store industry on the 9th, the National Convenience Store Franchise Association (Jeonpyeonhyeop) has demanded the headquarters implement a late-night surcharge system. Jeonpyeonhyeop is an organization composed of franchise owner (managers) councils from CU, GS25, 7-Eleven, and Emart24.

Jeonpyeonhyeop claims it is becoming increasingly difficult to bear the labor cost burden caused by the minimum wage increase and intends 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 product prices by about 5% during these hours.

Convenience store headquarters are in a difficult position regarding the demands from the store owner groups. A representative from the Korea Convenience Store Industry Association stated, “It is necessary to conduct a legal review to determine whether the late-night surcharge system is legally permissible and whether applying a uniform 5% increase would constitute collusion or other legal issues.”

Jeonpyeonhyeop plans to hold a meeting next week with the People Power Party regarding the introduction of the surcharge system. Kye Sang-hyuk, chairman of Jeonpyeonhyeop, said, “The People Power Party proposed holding a meeting at the National Assembly with relevant ministries. If the government and convenience store headquarters do not present measures to address the minimum wage increase, we will proceed with the surcharge system.”

Jeonpyeonhyeop also stated that they cannot accept the current minimum wage decision structure. They said, “We cannot acknowledge the minimum wage, which is effectively decided by public interest committee members who have no experience paying wages,” and demanded a restructuring of the decision-making process and the abolition of weekly holiday allowances. Additionally, they stated that the government should bear the card fees included in tobacco taxes, and to reduce the workload of convenience store owners, low-margin services such as transportation card charging, sales of volume-based waste bags, public utility bill payments, and convenience store parcel services should be discontinued.