7 in 10 Workers Oppose the Comprehensive Wage System... 'Unpaid Labor' Also Common

Workplace 119 surveys 1,000 employees
"A legal framework should be established to ban abuse of the system"

A survey has found that 7 out of 10 employees oppose the comprehensive wage system.

Workplace 119, a civic group, commissioned polling firm Global Research to survey 1,000 employed people aged 19 and older nationwide from September 1 to 7, 2026, on their views about premium pay for overtime and the comprehensive wage system. It released the results on November 1.

According to the survey, 71.7% of all respondents said the comprehensive wage system should be banned, while 28.3% said they supported it. Under the system, statutory allowances, including overtime pay, are included in base salary regardless of actual working hours or paid as a fixed allowance separate from base salary. Workers often do not receive proper pay for working beyond the specified hours under the system, prompting some labor groups to warn that so-called "unpaid labor" could become widespread.

Asked whether they receive all additional pay, or "premium pay," for overtime, holiday and night work at their current workplace, 44.9% said yes and 30.7% said no. Among the 307 respondents who said they did not receive premium pay, the most common reason was that their workplace used the comprehensive wage system, cited by 38.4%. Another 20.2% said the pay was withheld as a matter of practice, while 19.9% said their employer paid premium pay but imposed a cap.

Asked whether they received additional pay when they worked beyond the overtime hours specified under the comprehensive wage system, 69.1% of the same respondents said no. Just 8.5% said yes. Among these respondents, 38.8% said they sometimes worked more overtime than the specified hours, 10.5 percentage points higher than the 28.3% who said they worked only the specified hours. Workplace 119 said, "Even when the comprehensive wage system applies, workers must receive separate pay for any overtime beyond the specified hours. Yet a considerable number of businesses require employees to work more without properly paying them."

Park Eunha, a labor attorney at Workplace 119, said, "This shows that the comprehensive wage system undermines fair compensation for overtime and contributes to so-called 'unpaid late-night work.' To fundamentally prevent the system's abuse and misuse, it should be banned, and a clear legal basis should be established for calculating and paying wages according to actual working hours."

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