Next Year's Minimum Wage Set at "10,600-10,860 Won"... Public Interest Members Propose Deliberation Facilitation Range

Minimum Wage Commission Holds Plenary Session at Government Sejong Complex on July 14

The minimum wage for 2027 will be set between 10,600 won and 10,860 won.

At the 14th plenary session of the Minimum Wage Commission, held at the Government Sejong Complex on July 14, public interest members proposed this "deliberation facilitation range" to help close the gap between labor and management. As a result, the proposed increase rate compared to this year's minimum wage of 10,320 won is between 2.7% and 5.25%.

On the 14th, when the 14th Plenary Meeting of the Minimum Wage Commission was held, Kwon Soonwon, Chairman of the Minimum Wage Commission, was entering the plenary meeting room of the Minimum Wage Commission at the Government Complex Sejong for the resumption of the meeting. Photo by Yonhap News.

The lower limit of 2.7% reflects this year's projected consumer price inflation rate of 2.7%. The upper limit of 5.25% was derived by adding the average of the economic growth rate forecasts for this year presented by the Bank of Korea (2.6%) and the Korea Development Institute (2.5%), which is 2.55%, to the consumer price inflation rate forecast of 2.7%, a figure cited by both institutions.

Earlier in the day, during the meeting, the employer side had presented a revised minimum wage proposal of 10,550 won per hour as their 10th revised offer, while the employee side proposed 11,150 won per hour. Compared to these, the lower end of the public interest members' facilitation range is 50 won higher, while the upper end is 290 won lower.

Because the gap between labor and management failed to narrow, public interest members presented this facilitation range after hearing opinions from both sides. Moving forward, both labor and management will propose revised offers within this range. The final minimum wage for next year will be determined through either consensus or a vote.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.