First Meeting of Minimum Wage Commission... Lee In-jae Elected as Chairman

Attention on 10,000 Won Breakthrough

On the 14th, when the term of the 13th members of the Minimum Wage Commission began, a 2024 minimum wage signboard was installed at an Employment Welfare Plus Center in Seoul. The commission plans to hold its first plenary meeting for next year's minimum wage review next week. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

The Minimum Wage Commission, responsible for deciding next year's minimum wage, held its first plenary meeting on the 21st and elected Commissioner Lee In-jae as the chairman.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced that the commission held the first plenary meeting at the Government Complex Sejong with all 27 members in attendance.

The commission elected Commissioner Lee as the 13th Minimum Wage Commission chairman and Ha Heon-je, a standing commissioner, as the vice chairman. Commissioner Lee, a public interest commissioner, is a professor of economics at Incheon National University and has served as president of the Korea Labor Institute and the Korean Labor Economics Association.

The commission received the "2025 Minimum Wage Deliberation Request" submitted by the Minister of Employment and Labor in March and began the process for deliberating the 2025 minimum wage by referring the basic review materials to the expert committee for examination.

After the first meeting on this day, the commission will hold several plenary meetings to sequentially deliberate on the minimum wage determination unit, whether to distinguish by industry, and the minimum wage level.

The statutory deliberation deadline is 90 days from the date the Minister of Employment and Labor receives the deliberation request, which is the end of June, but deliberations often extend beyond the deadline into July. Last year, the decision was made only on July 19.

This deliberation is notable for whether next year's minimum wage will exceed 10,000 won for the first time. The minimum wage decided last year for this year is 9,860 won per hour.

Chairman Lee In-jae stated, “We will do our best in the deliberations to narrow differences based on the spirit of compromise and cooperation between labor and management and to broaden social consensus,” adding, “Since the schedule was somewhat delayed due to the new commissioner appointment process, we will speed up to ensure thorough discussions going forward.”