President Lee: "On Comprehensive Wage Reform, Let's First Implement What Is Possible Even Before Legislation"

On February 12, President Lee Jaemyung said in relation to measures to improve the comprehensive wage system, "Labor, management, and the government are already consulting on legislating the relevant matters and are pushing to revise the law, but even before those revisions are made, wouldn't it be better to first implement the parts that can be carried out through subordinate statutes or guidelines?"

Yonhap News Agency

Presidential Spokesperson Kang Yoojung said in a briefing that day that President Lee made this proposal during a meeting with his senior aides. The comprehensive wage system refers to a method of paying statutory allowances such as overtime pay by including them in the base salary regardless of actual working hours, or by paying them as a fixed allowance separate from the base salary.

Spokesperson Kang said, "Although court precedents to date have provided grounds to legislate improvements to the comprehensive wage system, the pace of legislation has recently been slow," and added, "Where labor, management, and the government have already reached agreement, he proposed that they should not wait for legislation but instead first implement those parts through other means."

In addition, after receiving a report on options to expand the coverage of national health insurance to hair-loss treatment, President Lee said, "Rather than deciding immediately, I would like to see more opinions gathered through public debate."

Regarding so-called 'workation (work + vacation)', President Lee also said that expanding workation centers is a good idea that can help revitalize local economies, and expressed the hope that local governments would actively cooperate to provide effective support for users.

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