The 12th meeting of the Minimum Wage Commission, which discusses the minimum wage level for next year, was held at the government building in Sejong on the 10th.
At the meeting, the workers' side demanded 10,430 won, which is a 4% increase from this year's minimum wage of 10,000 won. In response, the employers' side proposed 10,230 won, a 2% increase. The gap between the minimum wage proposals from both sides is 200 won.
On this day, both labor and management presented revised minimum wage proposals for the first time since the public interest committee members of the Minimum Wage Commission suggested a deliberation facilitation range at the 10th meeting. The facilitation range allows public interest members to set minimum and maximum limits if labor and management cannot agree on the minimum wage increase.
At the 10th meeting held on the 8th, public interest members requested labor and management to submit revised proposals within the range of '10,210 won to 10,440 won' to determine next year's minimum wage. This represents an increase of 1.8% to 4.1% compared to this year's minimum wage of 10,030 won.
In the initial revised proposal presented on this day, the workers' side indicated the highest limit of the increase suggested by public interest commissioners, while the employers' side proposed raising it by 0.1 percentage points from the lowest limit. Subsequently, both labor and management raised their proposals by 10 won each again.
Public interest commissioners announced that they would determine next year's minimum wage level. Kwon Soon-won, a professor at Sookmyung Women's University and secretary of the public interest committee, said in his opening remarks at the meeting, "Today is the last day for deliberation on next year's minimum wage level." He added, "In the last meeting, labor and management agreed to decide on the minimum wage for 2026 by today," and that they "promised to narrow the gap between both sides' claims by submitting revised proposals within the deliberation facilitation range."
However, around 8:30 p.m. that day, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) left the meeting, stating that it could not agree to the deliberation facilitation range. KCTU Chairperson Lee Ji-sun noted, "I did not enter negotiations aiming for an exit. I hoped for maximum consensus," adding that the "upper limit of the facilitation range should have been the lower limit."
Although the KCTU left, the labor and management sides, including the Korean Federation of Trade Unions, plan to continue the meeting that day. Afterward, they may proceed with a vote on the minimum wage increase for next year without the KCTU.
According to the Minimum Wage Act, a vote requires at least one-third of the labor and management representatives, which means at least 3 out of 9 members each, to be present. Currently, among the labor representatives, 5 remain after 4 from the KCTU have left, meeting this requirement.