전체메뉴

“Rivers and Mountains Change [in 10 years], but Employers Do Not” Members on the users’ side insist Wage Freeze for 10 years… the Minimum Wage Council fail to reach a conclusion, extending the period one more week.

Kang Hoseok

June 29, 2016

The Minimum Wage Council 7th full session (held at Sejong-city Government Complex) ended at 1 AM on the 29th, exceeding the period provided by law. The Council had a marathon session for 10 hours but could not reach a conclusion, deciding to have another at 3 PM on the 4th next month.

The issues for the minimum wage are mainly: 1. whether to record as hourly wage or monthly salary, 2. whether to apply to all businesses or to leave some exception, 3. how much should be the minimum wage to decide.

Employees “Record as Monthly Payment” vs. Employers “as Hourly Wage”

This issue derives from the matter of the weekly holiday extra-pay benefit. The Labor Standard Act article 55 determines that the employee pay one-day wage as the holiday extra-wage benefit to the employees who [are hired to] work longer than 15 hours a week. For example, an employee working 8 hours a day Monday to Friday is supposed to get 8 more hour wage a week although one does not work on Saturdays. Problem occurs when employers subtract this benefit when recording the minimum wage as per hour. In fact, one Ministry of Labor research has revealed that 44% of hourly workers and 60% of employers are not aware of this weekly holiday extra-pay benefit.

Hence the Council members representing employees had demanded that the record show the monthly payment including the weekly holiday extra-pay benefit. But those representing employers had opposed insisting that in that case companies violating the minimum wage regulation will increase. Finally the Council members took a vote and decided to record the total monthly payment amount upon the hourly wage amount.

Employees “All Businesses” vs. Employers “Except 6 Businesses”

The members on users’ side insisted to make exceptions of 6 businesses where the employers could pay below minimum wage: PC room, convenient store, gas station, security guard business, barbers and beauty shops, etc. Concerning this, the members representing employees expressed their concern that once the exception was applied to the businesses, lower-wage might fixed in these areas. They also clearly opposed this saying that this can become the matter of gender discrimination because women mainly work in these businesses. The members from the government representing the public interests also opposed saying it is not possible to apply any difference without any objective standard or statistics. This issue was also put to a vote, and they decided to leave no exception.

The employees’ side, “10,000 per hour/2090 thousand Won” vs. the employers’ side, “Freeze” for 10 years

The employees’ side proposed ‘10,000 Won hourly wage, 2090 thousand Won monthly salary (40 hours a week, 209 hour work per month including the weekly holiday extra-pay benefit)’, and the employers’ side ‘6,030 Won per hour (frozen compared to last year)’. Regarding this, even the members from the government requested an adjusted proposal, saying, “The wage freeze is in fact a reduction proposal because it does not even apply the inflation rate.” Eventually the employers’ side stepped back promising a proposal with some raise, but how much the raise is going to be is another matter, since the period provided by law has already been passed.

The Minimum Wage Council (which consists of 27 members among whom 7 from the employees, 7 from the employers and 7 from the government) started to act April 6 and had held 7 full sessions, visited on-the-spot, had meetings centering on living expenses and those on wage levels. If they reach an agreement on a wage proposal, they announce it on August 5 and the 2017 minimum wage is confirmed.

Min[people]Plus interviewed Ahn, Hyun Jeong Homplus Union Busan division chair, the only Council member who actually is getting the minimum wage.

- Tell me how you have felt while participating in the Council.

“So, they had decided my wage this way so far…. The Council is to decide the minimum wage, but I am the only person who gets it. No one else. Then they say whatever they want to without any sincere responsibility, especially those who represent the employers. They suggest the wage freeze, and I have felt like being suffocated. So I said, ‘Tell me your hourly wage. Calculate how much it is. Why don’t you try to live with 6,030 Won per hour, 1260 thousand Won monthly?’ To me the Council is a field for a desperate negotiation through which we have to decide the wage for 5 million workers, but they are here simply to raise their arms for the wage freeze. The government representatives also, university professors, bring into some complex documents and say this and that, which I cannot understand…. They are here, at the place of others’ negotiation and just represent their papers which have almost nothing to do with our negotiation, and that makes me upset. So the result is like, we have a 16 hour meeting session till 5 am next morning, and the newspapers the next morning goes, ‘Nothing has been solved: missing 16 hours’.”

- Why does the minimum wage have to be 10,000 Won per hour?

“How much do you think a person has to earn a month when she works 8 hours a day 5 days a week? At least 2 million Won. Don’t you think? If you calculate that 2 million Won into an hourly wage, you get 10,000 Won an hour. Once I asked some customers where I work how much they assumed we (working at Homeplus mart) received a month. Their answers were 1800 thousand Won or 2 million Won. They thought we had to receive that much observing our work there. It’s not a complex matter at all. The Ministry of Labor states that the minimum cost of living for one person per month is 1560 thousand Won. Who lives alone? The minimum cost of living for two people a month is over 2 million Won. That is even the minimum, cost, of, living.”

- What do you expect about the outcome of the Council?

“Every single political party promised 10,000 Won hourly minimum wage at this past general election: the Justice Party till 2019, the Democratic along and the National Party till 2020, and even the Saenuri Party promised 9,000 Won. Only the employers want the wage freeze consistently for 10 years…. Even rivers and mountains change in ten years [a Korean saying], but perhaps the employers do not. Any perspective? I have no idea. I guess we have to fight till we reach the decision of 10,000 Won.”

- This is your first time in the Council. There might have been some difficulty acting as a member.

“I first knew about this Council only last year. I have been earning minimum wage for fourteen years so far but did not know about the Minimum Wage Council. They say this Council has been active since 1988. Five million workers get their salary upon the minimum wage, but in fact only few know about the Council. Once they knew, they all would protest (laughter). I feel such great responsibility. The Council practiced on-the-spot visit, where the workers were so nervous that they could not say anything. So I said, ‘I work at a mart, too. I get the minimum wage. Let us talk freely.’ Then, they started to talk. Almost no one knows about the Council. I think, first of all, I have to let them know about it.”

Kang Hoseok sonkang114@gmail.com

<copyright holder © fieldmedia MinPlus, distributing and reproducing forbidden without permission>