Gyeongbuk Living Wage Set at 11,228 KRW per Hour, First Implemented Next Year ... Applied to Provincial Office Contract Workers

Gyeongbuk Provincial Government Office.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Koo Dae-sun] On the 1st, Gyeongbuk Province announced the living wage for next year as 11,228 KRW per hour.

Based on the "Gyeongsangbuk-do Living Wage Ordinance" enacted in January this year, Gyeongbuk Province conducted administrative procedures including investigating cases from other cities and provinces, researching a living wage calculation model (draft), surveying the actual conditions of applicable workers, and forming and appointing the Living Wage Committee. On the 18th of last month, a meeting with related experts was held to decide the living wage for the first time starting in 2023.

The living wage is a policy and social wage system that guarantees workers a certain level of livelihood by supplementing the minimum wage with partial coverage of expenses needed for education, culture, housing, and more.

The 2023 living wage announced by Gyeongbuk Province is 1,608 KRW (16.7%) higher than the 2023 statutory minimum wage of 9,620 KRW announced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. If the applicable workers work the statutory working hours of 209 hours next year, they will receive 336,072 KRW more per month compared to the minimum wage (2,010,580 KRW), totaling 2,346,652 KRW.

The living wage applies to fixed-term workers working in departments such as offices, bureaus, affiliated institutions, headquarters, business offices, and the council secretariat under Gyeongbuk Provincial Government. Workers temporarily hired through national and provincial subsidies for public work, community projects, etc., and workers already receiving wages above the living wage are excluded.

Park Ki-yeol, Chairperson of the Gyeongbuk Living Wage Committee (representative of Hanbaek Labor Office), said, “The level, applicable targets, and application period of next year’s Gyeongbuk living wage were determined after in-depth consideration of the prolonged COVID-19 economic situation, consumer price inflation rate, fiscal independence, and fairness between public and private sectors.”

Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of Gyeongbuk Province, said, “The living wage system, implemented for the first time in Gyeongbuk, is expected to have a significant impact on revitalizing the local economy by improving labor quality and increasing workers’ income, which leads to increased consumption. Considering various internal and external conditions, we plan to gradually expand not only the living wage level but also the applicable targets, and we will also strive to prepare policy research and cooperation plans to spread it to cities, counties, and private companies.”

The living wage was first implemented in Baltimore, USA in 1994 and has since spread worldwide. In South Korea, it started in 2013 in Nowon-gu and Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, and has been introduced in Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Gyeonggi Province, and other areas.