Clipart Korea
INCHEON — Incheon’s living wage for next year has been set at 12,630 won an hour, up 5.1%, or 620 won, from this year. The figure is 1,930 won, or 18.0%, higher than the minimum wage of 10,700 won that the government has set for next year.
The Incheon Metropolitan Government said on the 11th that its living wage committee recently met and gave final approval to the 2027 rate after reviewing inflation, the city’s fiscal conditions and the views of both labor and management.
From January 1, the revised living wage will apply to workers at Incheon City Hall, at municipal corporations and public agencies, at entities funded or invested in by the city, and at organizations directly contracted to carry out city administrative work.
Incheon enacted a living wage ordinance in 2015 and put it into effect in 2017. It steadily widened the scope, adding municipal corporations, public agencies and city-funded entities in 2019, and organizations contracted to handle city administrative work in 2022.
Labor groups including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions took part in the process, along with business groups including the Incheon Employers’ Federation and the Incheon Federation of Micro Enterprise. The committee decided the size of the increase after examining wage levels for comparable workers and the pace of minimum wage growth, among other factors.
“We hope this decision, reached through close communication with labor and management groups, will help stabilize the livelihoods of low-wage workers and inject vitality into the local economy,” said Kim Joon-sung, director general of Incheon’s economic affairs bureau.