Big surge in overdue wage payments to foreign workers

By Park Si-soo

Overdue wages to foreign workers in South Korea have surged in recent years.

The figure rose from 24 billion won in 2012 to nearly 68.7 billion won last year, Rep. Kang Byung-won of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea said, citing Ministry of Employment and Labor data.

The information is based on complaints about unpaid wages filed with the ministry’s offices across the country.

The biggest increase was in Busan where nearly 13.9 billion won was unpaid last year, a sixfold increase from 2.4 billion won in 2012. Daegu was second with 7.5 billion won, up 5.35 times from 1.4 billion won in 2012. Next were Daejeon and Gwangju.

The reasons for the hike are unknown.

Kang said the actual amount of unpaid wages could be higher given that not every foreign worker complained because they wanted to avoid conflict with their employer.

“Paying a contracted amount of wages on time is a very basic and crucial promise between employers and employees,” Kang said. “Authorities should ramp up efforts to fix the problem.”