[2020 National Audit] Significant Increase in Wage Arrears at Small Businesses with Fewer Than 5 Employees

Hong Seok-jun "Concerns Over Moon Administration's Faulty Economic Policies"

[Image source=Hong Seok-jun, Member of the People Power Party Facebook]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Since 2017, wage arrears in small-scale workplaces with fewer than five employees have increased relatively more compared to larger workplaces.

According to the new wage arrears report data submitted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor to Hong Seok-jun, a member of the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee from the People Power Party, the number of workplaces with wage arrears increased from 128,673 in 2017 to 133,290 in 2019. By workplace size, workplaces with fewer than five employees increased from 74,853 in 2017 to 80,890 in 2019.

The number of workers reporting wage arrears rose from 314,123 in 2017 to 331,135 in 2019. By workplace size, workplaces with fewer than five employees saw an increase from 128,936 workers in 2017 to 150,674 in 2019. The reported amount of wage arrears also increased for workplaces with fewer than five employees, from 363 billion KRW in 2017 to 525.6 billion KRW in 2019.

Assemblyman Hong said, “The relatively large increase in wage arrears in workplaces with fewer than five employees can be seen in the same context as the decrease in self-employed individuals, the decrease in self-employed individuals with employees, and the increase in self-employed individuals without employees.” He added, “We cannot help but worry that the Moon Jae-in administration’s misguided economic policies are ultimately causing significant harm to small-scale workplaces and micro self-employed business owners.”

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