“Looking for an imported-car owner; 10,000 won to prepare a meal” ... Bizarre job ad posted on Karrot [What do you think?]

[Financial News] A job listing on a local secondhand trading and recruitment platform offered a daily wage of 10,000 won for everything from grocery shopping to preparing dinner for five, drawing fierce criticism online. The listing has come under fire for its absurdly low pay, which falls short of the statutory minimum hourly wage, and its excessive demands.

According to Newsis on the 28th, the controversy spread the previous day as posts showing a listing on the job board of secondhand trading platform Karrot were shared across several online communities and social media platforms.
In the listing, the person seeking help, identified as A, described the household as one raising two children, aged four and two, and wrote, “I don’t have time because I’m raising the children, and it’s hard to choose dinner menus,” adding that they were looking for someone to prepare dinner for five every evening.
The work schedule was one hour every day, from 5 to 6 p.m., seven days a week, Monday through Sunday. A wrote, “I’ll give you a meal plan, and you just need to shop at a nearby market and leave food for five,” and specified, “I’m looking for someone who enjoys cooking and can make food like a mother’s home cooking or meals at a boarding house.” The daily wage offered was a mere 10,000 won.
Those who saw the listing strongly criticized the working conditions as unrealistic. They pointed out that, given the time needed to select ingredients at the market and travel, as well as the work involved in cooking and setting the table for five, finishing everything within an hour would be impossible—and that the time spent shopping was effectively excluded from working hours.
Another job listing reportedly posted by A is also facing a barrage of public criticism. Seeking someone to help get the child to and from school, A stipulated, “I’m looking for an ‘owner of an imported car’ to pick up the child from home and take them to school, and from school back home. The two drives combined must take no more than 20 minutes.”
Criticism poured in online: “It’s bizarre to lowball the value of housework at 10,000 won while insisting on an imported car for school drop-offs and pickups”; “Including the time spent shopping, the pay is less than half the minimum hourly wage”; and “That works out to just over 300,000 won a month for working seven days a week—that’s textbook labor exploitation.”
Under the current Labor Standards Act, time spent under an employer’s direction and supervision counts as working time, even if it is spent waiting or preparing. Therefore, shopping for groceries and transporting ingredients must also be counted as working time if done at the employer’s instruction, and the worker must be paid at least the minimum wage.

[email protected] Moon Young-jin Reporter