Up 1.7% from 9,860 Won This Year
Second Lowest Increase Ever
Equivalent to 2,096,270 Won Monthly
Vote Instead of Agreement Again This Time
The Minimum Wage Commission decided on the minimum wage for next year to be 10,030 KRW per hour on the 12th. This is an increase of 170 KRW (1.7%) from this year’s rate of 9,860 KRW, marking the first time in history that the minimum wage has surpassed 10,000 KRW per hour.
On the 12th, the Minimum Wage Commission held its 11th plenary meeting at the Government Complex Sejong and finalized the decision through a vote. After an overnight meeting that started the previous day, the commission concluded the final decision on the 2025 minimum wage around 2:30 a.m. The monthly wage based on this rate is 2,096,270 KRW (calculated on a 40-hour workweek and 209 hours per month).
The final proposals from the labor and management sides were 10,120 KRW and 10,030 KRW per hour, respectively. In the vote, the management proposal received 14 votes, while the labor proposal received 9 votes. The commission consists of 27 members: 9 workers, 9 employers, and 9 public interest members. However, just before the vote, 4 worker representatives from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) abstained from voting in protest against the public interest members’ suggested deliberation facilitation range, resulting in only 23 members participating. Among the 9 public interest members, 4 appeared to support the labor proposal, while 5 supported the management proposal.
This is the first time in 37 years since the introduction of the minimum wage system in 1988 that South Korea’s minimum wage has reached the 10,000 KRW level. However, the 1.7% increase rate is the second lowest ever, following the 1.5% increase in 2021.
According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the number of workers affected by next year’s minimum wage is estimated at 489,000 based on the ministry’s Employment Status Survey by employment type, and 3,011,000 according to the Statistics Korea’s supplementary survey on economically active population.
During the minimum wage deliberations that began in earnest on the 9th, the labor side initially demanded a 27.8% increase to 12,600 KRW per hour, while the management side requested a freeze at 9,620 KRW, showing a significant gap. As the gap in the fourth revised proposal reached 900 KRW, the public interest members eventually proposed a deliberation facilitation range of 10,000 to 10,290 KRW at the request of both labor and management representatives.
After further discussions, both sides submitted their final proposals, and the management proposal was ultimately adopted as next year’s minimum wage through a vote. During this process, the KCTU representatives refused to vote and left the meeting room, criticizing the public interest members’ facilitation range as unreasonable.
According to the Minimum Wage Act, the Minimum Wage Commission must submit the decided minimum wage for next year to the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the same day. The ministry will finalize and announce the minimum wage by the 5th of next month, with the new rate taking effect from January 1 of next year. Both labor and management can file objections before the announcement, and if the ministry deems the objections valid, it can request a re-deliberation from the commission. However, re-deliberations have never occurred to date.
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