The current Korean legal floor

For 2026, the statutory minimum wage in Korea is ₩10,320 per hour. The official monthly conversion, using 209 hours, is ₩2,156,880. Those figures come from MOEL notice 2025-47 and the Minimum Wage Commission's published rate, not from a marketing line.

The Korean source is an assignment on theory, decision criteria, claimed effects, and a historical table of past Korean rates. Use the table only with its years. Do not treat a 2018 figure as the live floor.

How the rate is decided

Korea uses a statutory commission model: the Minimum Wage Commission deliberates, and a ministerial notice makes the rate legally binding. That is one of several methods the assignment compares, alongside bargained extensions or other national models. Quote foreign methods only from official or named legal sources.

ILO Convention No. 131 lists criteria for minimum-wage fixing. A student paper can name those criteria; use a weight only when an official Korean document states it.

Effects and comparisons, critics point to possible job losses for some groups. A course paper should present both sides and should leave elasticities and a single national employment effect blank unless a named study states them.

The United States has a federal Fair Labor Standards Act floor, and many states or cities set a higher local rate — check the U.S. Department of Labor and the relevant state page, and S. number as if it were universal. Japan sets regional minimum wages under its Minimum Wage Act; China sets local minimum wages by province or city. Several Gulf systems use sector or national floors that differ by country. Compare official instruments.

Limits

The rate, the monthly-hour conversion, and coverage exceptions change.go.kr or the current MOEL notice,, before they write a contract or a paper figure. The live rules are on the official ministry pages.

Sources

1. Minimum Wage Act and Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) notice 2025-47, as published with the Minimum Wage Commission: the 2026 statutory minimum wage is ₩10,320 per hour, and the official monthly conversion at 209 hours is ₩2,156,880. Confirm the live page at minimumwage.go.kr or MOEL.
2. Constitution of the Republic of Korea, Article 32, which requires a statutory minimum-wage system, and ILO Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131), for the international criteria the Korean assignment discusses.
3. Historical rates in a classroom table should be labeled with their years and not treated as the current legal floor.

Last updated: November 13, 2026

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