Labor, businesses clash over industry-specific minimum wages

AI핵심 요약

• ·Unions seek 16.3% hike as employers call for lower pay floors in restaurants, hotels, taxi services Rhu Kee-jung (left), an employer representative and executive director of the Korea Enterprises Federation, listens to remarks by Lee Mi-sun (third from left), vice chair of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, during the sixth plenary session of the Minimum Wage Commission at the Government Complex Sejong on Tuesday.
• ·(Yonhap) South Korean labor and business groups clashed Tuesday as the state wage-setting panel opened talks on a variable minimum wage, a proposal backed by employers and fiercely opposed by unions.
• ·The talks came a day after labor groups proposed raising the 2027 minimum wage by 16.3 percent to 12,000 won ($7.93) an hour.
• ·The sixth plenary meeting of the Minimum Wage Commission in Sejong focused on proposals to have different minimum wages depending on industry, one of the most divisive issues in this year's negotiations.
• ·Rhu Kee-jung, executive director of the Korea Employers Federation, argued that businesses' ability to absorb labor costs varies significantly by sector.