In 2015, South Korea’s Ministry of Labour and Employment will introduce new penalty against employers who pay their worker wages at the rate lower than the minimum level. At present, employers who do not comply with the worker minimum wage laws will receive a warning from authorities and if they still fail to comply with the laws, they might be prosecuted. From next year, employers will face immediate fine and if they fail to pay their workers for over four months, they will have to pay compensation to workers twice the amount of the owed wage.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment will amend the minimum wage act to increase penalty against employers who fail to pay their workers minimum wage. The new law will see employers face immediate fine (lower than 20 million won) and if they fail to state requirement in an employment contract, they will be fine 5 million won immediately.
If the employers give cooperation after receiving the fine order, they will be charged only half of the fine. If they are found to violate the minimum wage laws again within two years, they could be subject to three year imprisonment or a fine of 30 million won.
In 2013, the ministry received 1,408 complaints about employers’ failure to pay minimum wage, twice as many as in 2012 when 754 complaints were recorded.
According to the ministry, some 2.09 million workers or 11.4 percent of total workforce received payment lower than the minimum wage rate. In 2011, a total of 453 employers were penalized for failing to pay minimum wage and 366 in 2012. In 2013 the number of penalized employers rose to 727.
This year, a total of 270,000 workers have submitted complaints against their employers about owed wages. The total amount of owed wage stands at 1.2 billion won.
A worker who wants to claim for double compensation mush have a statement of court’s judgment, confirming that his employer intentionally fail to pay his wage or the employer owes him more than four month payment.
Labour Section of the Royal Thai Embassy in Seoul
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