A minimum wage system is where a country legalizes the lowest level of wages to guarantee employees’ livelihoods and to force all employers who hire at least one person to pay their employees the minimum wage. The minimum wage has been constantly raised: 5,580 won in 2015, 6,030 won in 2016, and 6,470 won in 2017. However, recently, there has been a movement where some employees have insisted on raising the minimum wage up to 10,000 won by 2018.
  The arguments about raising the minimum wage are divided into pros and cons. For employers, they object to raising the minimum wage for the reason that labor productivity does not improve just by raising minimum wage. In addition, small or independent businesses that are expected to be hugely influenced will end up reducing the number of employees, and there will be difficulties in running their businesses. Kim Ji-young (’16, Dept. of International Business Administration), who is opposed to raising the minimum wage, said, “I think if the minimum wage is raised, product prices and the job reduction rate will also increase. Therefore, it can be a burden, especially to the employers who run independent businesses.”
  On the other end of the argument, the labor world agrees with raising the minimum wage for the sake of   ‘boosting the economy’. Their argument is the reasonable minimum wage will stimulate the economy as the current minimum wage is not enough to do so, and the current minimum wage will never alleviate the employee’s hard livelihoods or improve the labor quality. Ahn Deuk-kyun (’16, Dept. of Physical Education) agreed with raising the minimum wage, saying, “The minimum wage is a wage that can guarantee workers’ rights to maintain their livelihoods. I think considering that the inflation rate has increased every year, it is only fair that the minimum wage will be raised as well. Then, workers will be able to preserve their rights.”
  In an interview on a CBS radio program <This Is Sisajaki Jeong Gwan-yong>, Kim Jong-in, who made an appearance as a representative of the Minimum Wages Committee, said, “According to Statistics Korea (KOSTAT), there are many workers who just receive the minimum wage, and they are the heads of   households who have to take responsibility for their families. Considering that the cost of living for a family of 3 people is about 2.7~3.4 million won a month, the current minimum wage is insufficient.” Also he added, “We claim 10,000 won is enough to meet the minimum cost of living, which is 2.09 million won for a family in a month.”
  On the other hand, Kim Mun-sik, who made an appearance on the same program as a representative for employers, argued, “The minimum wage has already exceeded the appropriate level for employers who run independent businesses because the minimum wage has been raised annually. I think we need to think about freezing the minimum wage because the rate of economic growth has been low and the unemployment rate has reached the highest level ever in Korea.”
  Regarding this issue, Bae Gyeong-o, who runs a small restaurant called ‘GiGiGo’ located in the Jung-moon area, said, “I think that raising the minimum wage should be in accordance with the inflation rate. The rate of the increase was close to 10% last year, but raising the minimum wage up to 10,000 won seems to be a little excessive. I think if both employers and employees are concerned about the minimum wage and think about how to improve it, there will be no quarrel between them.”

By Lim Su-jin
sj38@cbnu.ac.kr