First Meeting on Next Year's Minimum Wage Review Set for the 21st... Applicability to Contract Workers Also to Be Discussed

The review process for next year's minimum wage will begin on the 21st. It will be the second minimum wage discussion since the Lee Jae-myung administration took office. In the first year of the administration, the minimum wage rose by only 2.9%, so labor groups are expected to push for a much larger increase this year. As a result, the main issues in this year's review are the size of the increase and whether contract workers should be covered.
According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) on the 19th, the Minimum Wage Commission will hold a plenary meeting on the 21st and begin the review process for the 2027 minimum wage. It will be the first official plenary meeting of the year.
At the meeting on the 21st, the commission is likely to elect its chair, a post that is currently vacant, with worker representatives, employer representatives and public-interest members all in attendance. The panel is then expected to discuss the schedule for its next meetings.
The key issues in this year's minimum wage talks are the size of the increase and whether contract workers should be covered. As usual, a standoff between business and labor over the wage hike is likely.
In particular, because last year's minimum wage increase was limited to 2.9%, labor groups are expected to strongly demand a larger hike in this year's talks. Last year's increase was 2.9%, or 290 won, from the previous year, making it the second-lowest first-year increase of any administration.
Labor groups have already signaled that they will call for higher wages and broader coverage, citing the need to boost domestic demand and narrow the gap between regular and non-regular workers. In the first quarter of this year, the two major umbrella labor unions set their wage increase demand for 2026 at 7% to 8% and said they would pursue that approach.
By contrast, the business community is expected to focus on keeping the minimum wage increase as low as possible. With uncertainty in the domestic economy rising this year because of the Middle East war and tariffs, it is expected to argue for a slower pace. Its position is that if the minimum wage is raised too sharply during an economic downturn, self-employed business owners and small merchants will struggle to bear the burden. Small business groups are also voicing concerns over the government's and ruling party's push for the worker presumption system and a daily work standards bill.
This year's review will also include, for the first time, a discussion on whether the minimum wage should apply to contract workers.
In this year's review request, Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon stated, "Please examine whether a separate minimum wage should be set for workers paid under contract-based or similar arrangements, for whom it is not appropriate to set the minimum wage on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis."
Whether the minimum wage should apply to contract workers is an issue labor groups have long advocated. The two major umbrella labor unions have consistently argued that the scope of minimum wage coverage should be expanded to include Persons in Special Types of Employment, platform workers and freelancers.
In response to Kim's review request, which explicitly raised the issue of minimum wage coverage for contract workers, the two major umbrella labor unions called it "an important turning point" and "a meaningful change," while urging substantive discussions within the commission.
jhyuk@fnnews.com Kim Jun-hyuk Reporter