“This is a library cafe and we pay 14,000 won per hour.”
A cafe in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul posted an ad on the job portal site Alba Heaven on the 14th of this month, stating, “Seeking part-time workers to work 6 hours a day, 5 days a week.” This is 42% more than this year’s minimum hourly wage of 9,860 won, and 18.3% more than the minimum wage (11,832 won) including the statutory holiday allowance.
As it has become increasingly difficult to find part-time workers, there are many self-employed people who offer to pay wages higher than the minimum wage.
According to the job portal site Alba Heaven on the 15th, the average hourly wage presented in part-time job recruitment notices for the first half of this year (January to June) was 19,370 won, which was 10.9% more than the minimum wage. By region, the average hourly wage for part-time jobs in Seoul was 11,350 won, the highest in the country, and Jeollabuk-do (13,900 won) was the lowest. A Alba Heaven official explained, “It is somewhat different from reality because we cannot post notices with an hourly wage below the minimum wage, but the percentage of companies offering an hourly wage higher than the minimum wage is expected to increase from 41.2% in 2019 to 50% in 2023.”
The reason why employers are willing to pay more than the minimum wage is because it is difficult to find part-time workers who will work long hours. According to a survey conducted by Alba Heaven in March of this year on 222 employers who hired part-time workers, 73.9% of the respondents said, “We pay more than the minimum wage.” The most common reason (multiple responses) was “To keep part-time workers employed for a long time” (42.7%). This was followed by “To provide benefits to excellent part-time workers” (32.3%) and “To make it easier to hire” (31.7%).
Since it is difficult to find part-time workers, there are many cases where they package it as if they are giving more hourly wages by including holiday allowances. According to the Labor Standards Act, if you work more than 15 hours a week, you must be guaranteed at least one paid holiday. If you work 40 hours a week, the minimum wage is 394,400 won per week, but if you add holiday allowances, you must be paid 473,280 won. In this case, the actual hourly wage is 11,832 won.
There are many self-employed people who intentionally use ‘split part-time jobs’ to save on holiday allowances, hiring multiple part-time workers who work less than 15 hours a week. This has negative side effects, such as part-time workers having to find multiple short-term jobs and self-employed people having to find and manage more employees, which makes it harder to hire people.
Experts point out that since the minimum hourly wage (10,030 won) will exceed 10,000 won for the first time next year, we should improve the holiday allowance now to alleviate the suffering of part-time workers and the self-employed. The purpose of the system is to guarantee low-income workers the right to rest, but in reality, the side effects are greater. Jeong Heung-jun, a professor of business administration at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, said, “It would be difficult to abolish it right away because low-income workers could be affected,” and “It would be desirable to gradually reflect this in the minimum wage and base salary through labor-management agreement.”
Reporter Joo Ae-jin [email protected]
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2024-08-15 21:05:54