The minimum wage is Korea should be at least $10

Choi Boeun

‘Why am I using honorific title for these coffees? Well, this one is more expensive than me’ She replied working at a busy coffee shop. If minimum wage in Korea stays at $6, it will be literally impossible for people to live off. Since South Korea is keen to encourage youth to stand on their own feet, the minimum wage should be at least $10. Also, you can get paid at least around $8 if this minimum wage is legally settled considering social custom. However, most independent businessmen declaim against this predicting a big jump in labor costs. Would this really make them shut down their business? These are three reasons why $10 should be realized.

First of all, we need to have youth to be financially independent from their parents. 486 generations born between 1960 and 1969 are still taking care of grown-up children expecting their retirement, because young people cannot get enough financial income when they do not have a proper career. This is a striking contrast from Japan where you can be well-off with just having part-time jobs. If young people could not afford to have a proper residence, this would bring out many social side effects such as low rate of marriage. Do you still think $10 is all of a sudden price? Maybe you are not familiar with Korean culture.

Because, not all supervisors follow (or prefer) government system. Many student workers get paid less than $5 mostly at a convenience store, internet café and delivery services without filling out an employment contract. They would receive at least $8 if minimum wage is officially settled at $10. That is, this bad custom will be much moderated once they feel pressured by the government. Consequently, second-class citizens could also be cared for.

On the other hand, many people exclaim that small business owners would shut down their business due to dramatically increased labor costs. They insist that if hourly pay goes up to $10, they would have to either reduce the number of staff or raise their commodity prices which are both impossible for them. However, the reasons they tend to close are related to their ability to manage, not because of personnel expenditure. The proportion of individual proprietors in Korea already accounts for 27.4% among all types of business which is more than twice those of other *OECD countries. Besides, a huge amount of money is spent for rent and management expenses when running it. Therefore, it is ridiculous for them to blame the closure on payroll costs.

In conclusion, current extremely low wage without considering consumer’s price must not be continued. The present path of S. Korea looks so similar to that of Japan’s so called ‘*Lost Decades’. It had experienced decreased birth rate, social polarization and bubbled real estate during that time. We do not want this to happen here. If most of the social problems can be solved by one method, why do they not change it?

*OECD : The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international economic organisation of 34 countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. (Wikipedia)

*Lost Decades : The Lost Decade or the Lost 10 Years is the time after the Japanese asset price bubble's collapse within the Japanese economy. The term originally referred to the years from 1991 to 2000, but recently the decade from 2001 to 2010 is often included, so that the whole period is referred to as the Lost Two Decades or the Lost 20 Years. (Wikipedia)

Reference : Most poorly paid workers in OECD

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