3.19 million workers earned less than minimum wage last year

It was found that as many as 3.19 million workers, 15.6% of the entire workforce in the country, received wages lower than the minimum wage rate last year. It means 15 out of 100 workers did not receive the legal minimum wage of 8,590 won per hour. In particular, nearly half of those, who work in the agriculture, fishing, lodging, and food industries, did not earn the minimum wage.

According to the analysis of the 2020 minimum wage rate released by the Korea Enterprises Federation on Monday, the rate of workers, who did not receive the minimum wage in Korea last year, stood at 15.6%, the second highest figure since 2019 (16.5%). The rate first exceeded 15% in 2018 (15.5%) and has remained above the 15% mark for three consecutive years.

The smaller the workplace, the greater the rate of employees, who did not earn the minimum wage, it was found. The rate of workers, who did not receive the minimum wage, was 36.3% for businesses with five or fewer workers while the figure was 2.6% for businesses with more than 300 workers. There was also a big gap among industries. The percentage of workers, who earned less than the minimum wage, was 51.3% and 42.6% in the agriculture and fishing industries, and the lodging and food industries, respectively, while the rate was relatively low in the information technology industry (2.2%) and the finance and insurance industry (6.1%).


Dong-Il Seo dong@donga.com