Office Workers' Top New Year's Wish: "Please Raise Our Wages"

Jikgang Gapjil 119, Survey of 1,000 Workers
78% Hope for Wage Increase, 22% Desire Shorter Working Hours

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The number one New Year's wish for office workers in South Korea in 2023 was found to be 'wage increase'.

The civic group Workplace Bullying 119 commissioned the polling agency Embrain Public to conduct a survey from December 7 to 14 last year, targeting 1,000 office workers aged 19 and older.

In this survey, when asked about their New Year's wishes, 78.0% of respondents, or 780 people, answered 'wage increase'. The second most common wish was 'reduction of working hours' (22.4%), followed by 'work-life balance' (20.1%). Next were wishes for changing to a better company (18.5%) and conversion to regular employment and job security (15.4%). Multiple responses were allowed for New Year's wishes.

Wage increase ranked first across all age groups, but the second place varied by age. People in their 20s chose 'changing to a better company' as second, those in their 30s selected 'reduction of working hours', and those in their 40s and 50s chose 'work-life balance'.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Nine out of ten office workers who participated in the survey said that their real wages have effectively decreased due to rising prices. 92.3% agreed that 'real wages have decreased due to inflation', and as a result, 96.2% of respondents said that 'wages should be increased' in the new year. The fact that real wages have been cut due to inflation was interpreted as the reason why office workers chose 'wage increase' as their top New Year's wish. Among them, 48.6% wanted a 'small increase', while 47.6% hoped for a 'large increase'.

This survey also asked about expectations regarding workplace bullying this year. More than half of women (51.2%), non-regular workers (52.5%), and workers at businesses with fewer than 5 employees (55.6%) expected that workplace bullying would not decrease. In contrast, men (62.6%), regular workers (62.8%), and workers at businesses with 300 or more employees (66.2%) had a positive outlook that bullying would decrease this year, showing a clear difference in perspectives.

There were many negative responses to questions about the government's labor and employment policies. When asked whether the government is doing well in labor and employment policies, 78.1% answered 'no', nearly four times higher than the 21.9% who answered 'yes'. Especially women (84.7%), workers at businesses with fewer than 5 employees (80.9%), and workers earning less than 1.5 million won per month (84.7%), who are considered vulnerable in the labor market, mostly gave negative evaluations.

Kim Yukyung, a labor attorney at Workplace Bullying 119, pointed out, "Women, low-wage workers, and workers at small businesses, who are vulnerable groups, were more critical of the policies," adding, "The policy direction must change to meet office workers' New Year's wishes for wage increases and reduced working hours."