The public members of the Minimum Wage Commission, which discusses the minimum wage level for next year, said on the 3rd that they would encourage labor and management to reach a voluntary agreement without presenting a deliberation facilitation range. Until now, if the opinions between labor and management had not converged, the public members had presented the upper and lower limits of the minimum wage to put it to a vote, but they stated they would not do so.
The commission held its 9th plenary meeting at the Government Sejong Building at 3 p.m. that day and began discussions to decide the minimum wage for next year.
Kwon Soon-won, secretary of the public members and a professor at Sookmyung Women's University, stated during the opening remarks of the meeting, "We do not plan to actively intervene, such as suggesting a deliberation facilitation range in today's meeting," and urged both labor and management to do their best to narrow the gap in their claims.
Labor and management narrowed the gap in minimum wage demands to 1,150 won through the 8th plenary meeting on the 1st. This is a reduction of 320 won compared to the initial minimum wage demand gap of 1,470 won presented by both sides, but there is still a large divergence in positions.
There were expectations that the public members would present a deliberation facilitation range at that day's meeting. The legal deadline for deciding next year's minimum wage has already passed on the 29th of last month, which also added weight to these expectations.
However, with the public members stating that they would not actively intervene that day, there are projections that the discussions on next year's minimum wage will be prolonged. During that day's meeting, labor and management also showed differences of opinion regarding the amount of increase in the minimum wage.
Ryu Gi-seop, secretary of the worker representatives and secretary-general of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said, "Without bold increases in the minimum wage, we cannot continuously promote the revitalization of the domestic economy." In response, Ryu Gi-jeong, secretary of the employer representatives and executive director of the Korea Enterprises Federation, stated, "Our minimum wage has already exceeded 60% of the median wage in 2019 and is high by international standards."
Meanwhile, since the implementation of the minimum wage system in 1988, the minimum wage has been determined through labor-management agreement only seven times: in 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2007, and 2008.