SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Small business owners in South Korea may face a bumpy road again this year despite a series of government measures to support them, industry watchers said Wednesday. The year 2018 was one of the worst years for self-employed people in Asia’s fourth-largest economy as they were hit hard by [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — The conflict between the government and business owners has intensified in South Korea ahead of the scheduled implementation of a new wage system that obligates employers to give paid leave to workers, industry watchers said Sunday. Under South Korean law, an employer must provide employees with paid leave depending [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Amid the controversy over the revision of the minimum wage act, which includes a weekday off, South Korean companies are facing a complicated wage system. At the same time, South Korean companies have shown greater flexibility with wage increases than in Japan, meaning wages will naturally increase as service [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — An increase in the minimum wage has helped improve productivity at South Korean manufacturing firms in general, but its impact varied by sector and size of business, a report said Friday. South Korea’s minimum wage has gradually increased since the government first implemented the policy in 1988. Between 2011-2016, [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 23 (Korea Bizwire) – A majority of small business owners in South Korea are considering reducing staff after being having difficulty coping with the government’s recent minimum wage hikes, the latest of which is set to come into effect next year. According to a survey of 300 small business owners and vendors [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Food chains in South Korea are rushing to introduce more self-service kiosks as part of efforts to cut costs amid the country’s rising minimum wage, industry sources said Tuesday. The nation’s tripartite wage commission of government, management and labor decided Saturday to jack up the minimum wage for 2019 [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Owners of mom-and-pop stores on Friday called on the government to freeze the minimum wage in 2019, claiming rising labor costs will seriously impact their profitability. If the government moves to raise the minimum hourly wage from the current 7,530 won, the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME) won’t [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — A new study has found that among young South Koreans earning less than 2 million won per month, few experienced a salary decrease following the increase in the minimum wage. The activist group “Youth Community Union” announced the results today after surveying 255 individuals between 19 and 39 years [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Two-thirds of part-time workers got a pay raise after the hike in the minimum wage this year, but the workers are divided on whether the increase in basic pay had a positive effect, a survey showed Thursday. Albamon, a portal that connects employers and seekers of part-time jobs, polled [...]
SEOUL, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s restaurant industry has been shrinking at a fast clip due to a rise in the number of one-person households and other unfavorable factors, government data showed Thursday. The number of restaurant owners stood at 729,724 in December last year, down 0.51 percent, or 3,718, from the previous [...]