The 12th Plenary Meeting of the Minimum Wage Commission Held
KCTU Walks Out in Protest Against Deliberation Promotion Range
Revised Proposal by Labor Representatives Submitted by FKTU
As the final negotiations to determine next year's minimum wage continue, the gap between the demands of labor and management has narrowed from 720 won to 220 won. However, during this process, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) refused to participate in the deliberations and walked out.
The Minimum Wage Commission held its 12th plenary meeting on July 10 at the Government Complex Sejong. Of the 27 members, 26 attended, including 9 labor representatives, 8 employer representatives, and 9 public interest representatives, continuing the final deliberations on the minimum wage.
At the meeting, the labor representatives presented their ninth revised proposal, suggesting next year's minimum wage be set at 10,440 won. This is a 4.1% increase compared to this year’s 10,030 won. The employer representatives proposed 10,220 won, which is a 1.9% increase from this year.
As a result, the gap between labor and management has narrowed to 220 won. Through several previous meetings, the gap had already been reduced to 720 won, and now it has been narrowed by an additional 500 won. Since labor and management failed to reach an agreement, the public interest representatives have proposed a deliberation promotion range between 10,210 won (lower limit) and 10,440 won (upper limit).
However, on this day, the KCTU labor representatives protested against the deliberation promotion range, which resulted in only a modest increase rate, and refused to participate further, walking out of the meeting. As a result, the revised proposal from labor was only partial. The ninth revised proposal presented on this day was submitted by the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) labor representatives.
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