SEOUL, Sept. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – As South Korea grapples with record-breaking levels of wage arrears this year, a new report has revealed that foreign workers have borne a disproportionate share of the burden, with unpaid wages totaling nearly 70 billion won in the first seven months of 2024. According to data obtained from the Ministry [...]
SEOUL, June 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Average South Korean workers in their 20s need 86.4 years to buy an apartment in Seoul using only their wage earnings, a report showed Monday. Lee Han-jin, a researcher at the Labor Institute of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the largest umbrella union, released the report based on [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s government announced plans to intensify legal actions and asset investigations targeting employers who fail to pay employees, as wage arrears continued rising this year after hitting record highs in 2023. The Ministry of Employment and Labor said that it has prepared new guidelines to strengthen the handling of [...]
SEOUL, Mar. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s major commercial banks rewarded employees with significant pay raises last year, despite continuing a cost-cutting drive that saw further reductions in staffing levels and branch networks across the country, according to financial filings. An analysis by Yonhap News of the 2023 business reports disclosed by the nation’s four [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has recorded its highest ever wage arrears, surpassing 1.7 trillion won last year, marking a significant increase from the previous year. According to a statement from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the total amount of unpaid wages in the past year amounted to 1.78 trillion won. This [...]
SEOUL, June 8 (Korea Bizwire) — More than one out of three South Koreans who changed jobs in 2021 experienced a wage decline amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Thursday. The number of registered employees who were eligible for state insurance programs came to 25.49 million in 2021, up 2.7 percent from the previous year, [...]
SEOUL, May 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Kakao Corp., a major South Korean tech firm, beat its rival Naver Corp. in terms of average wage for three consecutive years through 2022, data showed Sunday. Kakao, which operates the country’s most popular mobile messenger, KakaoTalk, saw its average wage reach 139 million won (US$103,422) last year, hovering [...]
SEOUL, June 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho asked companies Tuesday to refrain from excessively raising wages for employees as the move could further accelerate inflation. Choo made the request during a meeting with members of the Korea Enterprises Federation (KEF), including Sohn Kyung-shik, federation chief and CJ Group chairman, and Rhee In-yong, [...]
SEOUL, April 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Co.’s management and its workers agreed to an average 9 percent pay raise in wages for the year, sources said Friday, ending 11 rounds of negotiations since February. The world’s largest memory chip and smartphone maker reached an agreement with representatives of its employees over wages and [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Hyundai Motor Co. has disclosed that it will temporarily suspend production at its Asan plant in South Chungcheong Province for two days on Monday to Tuesday due to difficulty in procuring automotive chips. Despite the production suspension, however, plant workers will still be paid their full wages, raising some [...]