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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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 Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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And what would happen if Canada, for example, lowered the min. wage to $4 an hour? Would people simply live in cardboard boxes? No, those jobs would not fill up. No one would take them at all. They would be empty shops everywhere because of staff shortages.
If Korean youngsters starting moving out of their homes and being independent, the min. wage would have to raise or all these small businesses would not have workers. Because of the culture, they can give only $4 an hour and people will come.
I have heard Singapore is the same.
| silkhighway wrote: |
| What people call "cultural differences" is what I call people doing what they need to do to survive. Obviously people can't live a reasonable life on Korean minimum wage, and if their choice is between living in the foreign ghettoes with scary foreigners or living home, most choose to live home. Not every Korean has that option by a long shot and last I checked Korea's true poverty level is substantially higher than North America's at 15%. |
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myenglishisno
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Location: Geumchon
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| Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 9:02 pm Post subject: |
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| If Koreans make $4 an hour after taxes, they keep most of it. In Canada, if you make $10 an hour you'll probably end up keeping around the same after you pay rent/utilities, the difference being that you don't have to live at home with your folks. |
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silkhighway
Joined: 24 Oct 2010
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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| BoholDiver wrote: |
And what would happen if Canada, for example, lowered the min. wage to $4 an hour? Would people simply live in cardboard boxes? No, those jobs would not fill up. No one would take them at all. They would be empty shops everywhere because of staff shortages.
If Korean youngsters starting moving out of their homes and being independent, the min. wage would have to raise or all these small businesses would not have workers. Because of the culture, they can give only $4 an hour and people will come.
I have heard Singapore is the same.
| silkhighway wrote: |
| What people call "cultural differences" is what I call people doing what they need to do to survive. Obviously people can't live a reasonable life on Korean minimum wage, and if their choice is between living in the foreign ghettoes with scary foreigners or living home, most choose to live home. Not every Korean has that option by a long shot and last I checked Korea's true poverty level is substantially higher than North America's at 15%. |
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You're basically saying people in Korea working in convenience stores and such are perfectly content with $4/hr and have no wish to earn more, but if they did because their costs were higher (because they don't live at home), then minimum wage would rise.
That's not the way the world works. It's economics 101 here, quantity supplied = quantity demanded. If Korea legislated a minimum wage of $10/hr or nobody would work for less than that amount, then GS 25's labour costs suddenly increase by 2.5 times. Joe Korean or Bob English teacher for that matter is not going to be able to go their and pick up his 2K won smokes and his cheon won sausage sticks and GS25 still be able a make a profit, so they are forced to increase the prices. This in turn puts pressure on *your* paycheque and you then demand a higher paycheque from your boss. As a whole, this means major inflation in Korea and Korea suddenly becomes less price competitive as an exporting country.
That's a simplified model of course, minimum wage laws exist for a reason, but the principles remain the same. Minimum wage employees don't earn minimum wage because they are content with it, they earn it because it's what they can demand.
Now to what would happen in Canada or anywhere else in the world if something dramatic happened economically that minimum wage was no longer a living wage and Canada's social welfare net dissappeared. If it was because of economic hardship, then at some point people would have to learn to live with it. That would mean getting more roommates, moving in with their parents. collecting bottles on the street, working illegally on the side, basically doing what people do the world over to survive. What else would they do, starve? |
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West Coast Tatterdemalion
Joined: 31 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 5:31 am Post subject: |
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| Or they would revolt. And you have a bunch of pissed off, disgruntled people with nothing to lose. |
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myenglishisno
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Location: Geumchon
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 5:39 am Post subject: |
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| West Coast Tatterdemalion wrote: |
| Or they would revolt. And you have a bunch of pissed off, disgruntled people with nothing to lose. |
Our generation is too chicken ____ to revolt. People would just complain on the internet ad nauseum. |
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BoholDiver
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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Disagree. Look at france and UK just recently. They are not afraid to stand up to the gov't.
About the wage thing, I saw a small example of this in Edmonton and Saskatoon (and Calgary too, I suspect) in 2008, just before the crash. Every business was using billboard space to advertise job openings. McDonalds and the like was offering $11.85 an hour to work. McDonalds shut down a few days because of lack of workers. Many businesses that hire people at slightly higher than minimum were severely understaffed. In Edmonton, it was similar but businesses were offering $13-14/ hour for jobs that usually pay minimum.
| myenglishisno wrote: |
| West Coast Tatterdemalion wrote: |
| Or they would revolt. And you have a bunch of pissed off, disgruntled people with nothing to lose. |
Our generation is too chicken ____ to revolt. People would just complain on the internet ad nauseum. |
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silkhighway
Joined: 24 Oct 2010
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 6:40 pm Post subject: |
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| BoholDiver wrote: |
About the wage thing, I saw a small example of this in Edmonton and Saskatoon (and Calgary too, I suspect) in 2008, just before the crash. Every business was using billboard space to advertise job openings. McDonalds and the like was offering $11.85 an hour to work. McDonalds shut down a few days because of lack of workers. Many businesses that hire people at slightly higher than minimum were severely understaffed. In Edmonton, it was similar but businesses were offering $13-14/ hour for jobs that usually pay minimum.
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I saw an advertisement recently for Wendy's in Calgary offering 40 hours a week a $12/hr, which is $3.20/hr than minimum wage in Alberta. I don't know what's more amazing..a fastfood place paying higher than minimum wage or a fastfood place offering 40 hrs a week. |
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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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| Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:50 am Post subject: Re: Gov't to stop expat-heavy neighborhoods from becoming sl |
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Do you think this is because foreign citizens are easy target or because they are hired for cheap labor (think Philippines working at factories)? This reminds me of teachers in Seoul being put up in the cheapest apartments possible (not everyone of course). |
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