Next Year's Seoul Living Wage, Hourly Rate 10,702 Won, 1.7% Higher Than This Year

1982 Won Higher Than 2021 Government Minimum Wage
Applied to 10,000 Workers Including City, Investment Institutions, and Subsidiaries

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Seoul City announced on the 16th that it has finalized the 2021 'Seoul-type Living Wage' at 10,702 KRW per hour. This is a 1.7% (179 KRW) increase from this year's living wage of 10,523 KRW, and 22.7% (1,982 KRW) higher than the government’s announced minimum wage of 8,720 KRW for next year, which was notified last August.

Accordingly, those subject to the Seoul-type living wage will receive 2,236,720 KRW per month based on the regular wage if they work the statutory labor hours of 209 hours.

The Seoul-type living wage refers to a wage level that allows workers to actually live in Seoul with their families by securing housing costs, education expenses, cultural living expenses, etc., from the income earned through work. Seoul City first introduced it in 2015 as the first metropolitan local government, and it is determined annually by considering inflation rates, household income, and expenditures.

The 2021 Seoul-type living wage, confirmed at the '2nd Seoul Living Wage Committee' held on the 7th, will be applied from January 1st next year after official notification. The targets include about 10,000 people such as directly employed workers of Seoul City and Seoul City investment and contribution institutions who are not subject to the civil servant pay system, workers of subsidiaries of Seoul City investment institutions, private consigned workers, and participants in New Deal jobs.

Seoul City explained that it decided the Seoul-type living wage level by taking into account various statistics such as the government’s minimum wage increase rate for next year (1.5%), the difficult economic conditions due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), and household expenditures of urban worker three-person households.

While maintaining the basic structure of the 'Seoul-type 3-person Household Expenditure Model' jointly developed by Seoul City and the Seoul Institute, the 'poverty line' was raised to 59.5% of the median household expenditure of three-person households. Also, the housing cost standard was maintained at 43㎡ (approximately 13 pyeong), which is the appropriate housing standard for three-person households, and the private education expense ratio reflected the previous standard of 50% of the average monthly private education expenses for elementary, middle, and high school students in the Seoul area.

The city plans to gradually increase the reflection rate up to 60% of the median income, which is the OECD poverty line, to establish a living wage model at the level of advanced countries.

Seo Seong-man, Seoul City’s Labor and Livelihood Policy Officer, said, "The Seoul-type living wage, now in its seventh year since introduction, has achieved results such as ushering in the era of a 10,000 KRW hourly wage and leading increases in the government minimum wage and living wages in other cities and provinces." He added, "The increase rate was decided comprehensively considering the prolonged economic situation due to COVID-19 and Seoul City’s financial conditions."

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