Members of the public interest committee at the Minimum Wage Commission requested on the 8th that labor and management submit a revised plan within the range of '10,210 to 10,440 won' to determine next year's minimum wage. This amount represents an increase of 1.8% to 4.1% compared to this year's minimum wage (10,030 won).
The public interest committee proposed this 'consultation facilitation range' during the 10th meeting of the Minimum Wage Commission held at the Government Sejong City Hall, as the positions of labor and management could not be narrowed on the increase in the minimum wage.
The consultation facilitation range allows the public interest committee to establish upper and lower limits if labor and management cannot agree on the increase of the minimum wage. Once the public interest committee presents this consultation facilitation range, labor and management must propose revisions within this range.
At this meeting, the workers' side demanded a minimum wage of 10,900 won for next year, which is an increase of 8.7% from this year. In response, the employers' side proposed 10,180 won, an increase of 1.5%.
The gap between labor and management's demands for next year's minimum wage amounts to 720 won. Considering that the gap was 1,470 won when both sides initially presented their demands for the minimum wage, it can be said that the gap has been narrowed by about half.
However, the public interest committee determined that it would be difficult to narrow the differences just with the revised proposals put forth by labor and management that day. So far, labor and management have introduced a total of eight revised minimum wage proposals.
The public interest committee noted, 'We set the lower limit based on the consumer price inflation forecast of 1.8% for this year, while the upper limit considered this year’s predicted national economic productivity growth rate (2.2%) and the cumulative consumer price inflation rate and minimum wage increase rate difference from 2022 to 2024 (1.9%).'
Both sides must present their revised proposals within the range suggested by the public interest committee. Based on this, the Minimum Wage Commission will reach an agreement or vote to determine next year’s minimum wage. Since the minimum wage system was implemented in 1988, the minimum wage has been determined by labor-management agreements only seven times.