A trilateral committee of government, labor and management representatives agreed Friday to raise the country’s minimum hourly wage by about 7.1 percent to 5,580 won ($5.50) per hour for next year, officials said.
The Minimum Wage Council reached the deal after an intensive overnight discussion on compromise plans, marking the first time that a minimum wage has been set within a legal deadline.
The hourly wage translates to 44,640 won a day for those who work eight hours a day and 1.16 million won a month for those who work 209 hours a month.
Initially, the labor circle demanded a 26.8 percent increase from this year’s hourly wage of 5,210 won, while management proposed a freeze. But they put forward compromise plans during a plenary meeting of the council on Tuesday and began negotiating over them on Thursday afternoon.
The 7.1 percent increase plan passed the council in an 18-0 vote with nine abstentions at the end of the overnight negotiations.
“We think the raise is still not enough for workers but take this as a result of our best efforts,” a labor representative said after the meeting.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor is scheduled to fix the minimum wage by Aug. 5 after announcing details of the agreement next week. (Yonhap)
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