Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Korea's minimum wage increase to take effect Wednesday
The 2020 minimum wage will be 8,590 won an hour. Gettyimagesbank
By Jung Min-ho
By Jung Min-ho
Korea's minimum wage increase will go into effect on Wednesday (Jan. 1).
Next year's minimum wage will be 8,590 won ($7.4) an hour, up from 8,350 won.
In July, the Minimum Wage Commission, made up of experts and representatives of labor and business, decided to raise the minimum wage by 2.87 percent.
According to the commission, the new minimum wage is expected to affect more than 1.37 million workers across the country.
The government hopes the increase will improve the lives of people struggling with high and ever-increasing living costs.
Raising minimum could backfire for workers, some argue
The Moon Jae-in administration aims to boost the economy by increasing disposable workers' income, one of the key policies of his income-driven growth strategy.
But the idea has brought a strong backlash from small business owners, who say they have no choice but to hire fewer workers to stay afloat.
After raising the minimum wage rapidly in his first two years ― by 16.4 percent for 2018 and 10.9 percent for 2019 ― the government accepted business owners' opinions and decided to slow the pace. During his election campaign, Moon promised to raise the minimum wage to 10,000 won by 2020.