Minimum Wage 10,320 Won Era Small Business Owners "Reduce Labor Costs with DX to Survive"

[Financial News] With the minimum wage for 2026 set at 10,320 won per hour, the monthly conversion amount (including weekly holiday allowance) will reach 2,156,880 won. This is an increase of 7.3% compared to 2023 (9,620 won) and a whopping 18.4% compared to 2021 (8,720 won). Amidst the rapidly increasing labor cost burden, the introduction of digital solutions (DX) that can replace manpower is rapidly spreading among small business owners.
According to the industry on the 28th, the monthly usage fee for table orders based on a store with 10 tables is about 130,000 to 160,000 won for postpaid and 150,000 to 200,000 won for prepaid. This is 6.0~9.3% of the monthly labor cost (about 2.15 million won). Such DX solutions include unmanned order systems like table orders, kiosks, and serving robots.
Park So-hyun (alias), who runs the cooking pub 'Guwol's Socheol' in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, said, "Due to the wide store structure, excessive time and manpower were consumed in order response, but after introducing table orders, the staff's movement has been reduced to less than half," adding, "The store operates without additional recruitment even during peak times." In fact, the daily movement of staff in this store decreased from 10,000 steps to less than 5,000 steps, and the number of table visits also decreased from 3~4 times to 1~2 times.
The meat restaurant 'Ggulbok' in Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, is a small store that operates only from 6 to 10 PM. In a structure where more than 1.2 million won was fixedly spent monthly on hall part-time costs, the introduction of the table order system completely eliminated this cost.
This DX not only reduces costs but is also expanding as a marketing tool through platform linkage. The fee structure is also changing. The existing unmanned order system based on Payment Gateway (PG) increased the fee burden as sales increased. In fact, '3rd Floor Attic', which has been operating in Anyang for 10 years, saw the table order fee soar from 100,000 won to 600,000 won per month as the sales of the popular dessert menu 'Cruki' increased. The store owner found a company that could switch to a Value-Added Network (VAN) based payment system and replaced it with a system that does not incur additional fees other than card company fees.
Experts say that as the minimum wage increase is an unstoppable trend, the survival strategy of the self-employed depends on digital transformation.
Roh Min-seon, a research fellow at the Korea Small Business Institute, explained, "The introduction of unmanned devices is an important issue for small business DX, and the demand is likely to increase significantly for the time being," adding, "This requires linkage with government support, and an approach considering the characteristics of each service and the environment of each business is necessary."
Moreover, the strengthening of government labor regulations, maintenance of weekly holiday allowance, and rising labor costs are short-term burdens for small business owners, but there is also an analysis that it could be an opportunity to promote automation and advancement of the service industry in the long term. In this regard, Han Seong-sook, who was inaugurated as the Minister of SMEs and Startups on the 24th, suggested one-stop support tailored to the characteristics of small business owners and fostering neighborhood businesses in her inaugural speech, saying, "I will focus on reducing management burdens so that they can engage in stable livelihoods by stimulating domestic demand and overcoming difficult situations."


jimnn@fnnews.com Shin Ji-min Reporter