South Korea’s Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon (L) speaks at a meeting with small business owners and merchants in Yongin on the southern outskirt of Seoul on Nov. 15, 2017. (Image: Yonhap)
SEJONG, Nov. 15 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s finance minister said Wednesday that the government will make efforts to reduce increasing labor costs that small businesses would suffer due to the government-led hike in minimum wage.
President Moon Jae-in has pledged to increase the minimum wage to 10,000 won (US$8.98) by 2020.
2020, as part of his efforts to narrow the income gap and boost private consumption, which may then stimulate the economy.
As a first step, the government earlier decided to raise the minimumwage by 16.4 percent to 7,530 won per hour next year, marking its biggest jump in nearly two decades.
Such a sharp increase caused a flush of complaints about rising labor costs from micro business owners and merchants.
Last week, the government announced a set of measures to set aside 3 trillion won to ease the financial load of small-sized firms.
Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said the measures are designed tohelp micro businesses hire more people and stay afloat in the face ofhigher minimum wage.
“The South Korean economy will be better off when the smaller enterprises do well and give higher salaries to employees,” he said in a meeting with these business people. “The government will put more policy efforts to reduce the financial burden.”
(Yonhap)
