SEOUL, May 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Unionized bus drivers in Seoul will resume their “work-to-rule” protest this week following a long holiday weekend, city officials said Tuesday. In a press release, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said the union will launch its collective action early Wednesday and the city will take “special steps” to minimize inconveniences [...]
SEOUL, May 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Two disability rights activists affiliated with the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) underwent a pretrial detention hearing on Monday after staging a 15-day rooftop protest atop a Catholic cathedral in Seoul’s Hyehwa-dong neighborhood. They were arrested earlier this month on charges of violating assembly laws after descending voluntarily from the [...]
SEOUL, May 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate for South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party, has unveiled a sweeping set of labor policy proposals, vowing to support companies that adopt a 4.5-day workweek and gradually shift the nation toward a four-day workweek system. In a statement released via Facebook on April 30, [...]
As non-regular workers fall further behind in wages, benefits, and protections, a growing segment of the workforce risks being left out of the country’s economic future. SEOUL, April 30 (Korea Bizwire) — In South Korea’s rapidly changing labor market, a widening wage chasm is sending a sobering message: for non-regular workers, the dream of financial parity [...]
As employment anxiety rises, the next wave of graduates is scaling back hopes — and seeking stability over ambition. SEOUL, April 30 (Korea Bizwire) — New university graduates in South Korea are hoping to earn an average starting salary of 41.4 million won (approximately $28,500) this year, according to a new survey — a marginal [...]
SEOUL, April 29, (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s overall disability employment rate saw a modest improvement in 2024, but private-sector companies continue to lag behind their mandatory hiring targets, government data showed Monday. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, as of the end of 2024, the average disability employment rate across 32,692 public [...]
GWANGJU, April 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The recorded message comes before every call now: “This call will be recorded from this point onward.” It was supposed to make things better. It hasn’t. At the Seo District Office in Gwangju, where municipal workers answer hundreds of citizen complaints each week, the voices on the other end of [...]
SEOUL, April 23 (Korea Bizwire) — As anticipation builds for South Korea’s May “golden holiday,” new data reveals a stark reality for many franchise workers: more than 60% of franchise outlets nationwide operate without a single regular day off. According to figures released on April 23, 2025, by Statistics Korea through the national statistics portal (KOSIS), [...]
SEOUL, April 23, (Korea Bizwire) — For the first time, women working at South Korea’s top 500 companies earned more than 70 percent of what their male counterparts make, according to a new report signaling slow but steady progress in narrowing the corporate gender pay gap. The report, released April 22, 2025, by corporate analysis [...]
SEOUL, April 20 (Korea Bizwire) — Despite growing awareness of labor rights in South Korea, workers at businesses with fewer than five employees continue to face widespread legal exclusion and exploitation, according to a report released Sunday by labor advocacy group Workplace Gapjil 119. The group highlighted recent consultations with employees at small firms who reported [...]