Korean Job Discussion Forums

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

One of my students reported today that he and his friend have part-time jobs cleaning a public bath. They have to work 9 hours on both Saturday and Sunday and earn a whopping W3,000 an hour. He said the work is not difficult but it is boring.

indytrucks · Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Location: The Shelf

My students have regularly told me that working at a fast food restaurant pays 2,500 won an hour, but you get a discount on your Big Mac set. At that rate, if you worked 40 hours a week, you could afford a trip to the CGV with some friends (sans popcorn) or you could purchase that nice pink pinstriped shirt from Chasecult.

Wahoo.

periwinkle · Joined: 08 Feb 2003

OMG- talk about slave labor! That's just wrong. 2.5/hour!!!!! Is there a minimum wage law here?

mithridates · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:00 pm Post subject:

That's why I laugh when I see a post going on about "man, Koreans are so gay because they're not even independent like (insert country) where people are cool and all live on their own in their 20s."

jaganath69 · Joined: 17 Jul 2003

The market pays what people will work for. Raising wages for these jobs would cause inflation and higher unemployment. Its a right of passage in most countries, I worked for a pittance in my youth and later in the UK in menial jobs with no minimum wage and yet here I am totally unscathed.

I_Am_Wrong · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: whatever

I don't agree with the above post at all. As long as there are people and companies making millions...no one should be making that low of a wage. In addition 2500won/hour is quite good compared to some countries.

Css · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Location: South of the river

How old are your students?

When I was 13/14, I was happy working for about 2000won an hour.

indytrucks · Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Location: The Shelf

Mr. Pink · Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Location: China

Universalis · Joined: 17 Nov 2003 Location: Seoul

matthews_world · Joined: 15 Feb 2003

Government mandated minimum wage here in Korea is around 5,000won per hour. Please keep in mind there are few, if none at all, tip jobs here in Korea where workers could make extra money. That's the way it is.

I_Am_Wrong · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: whatever

It's pretty messed up. There's that Baskin Robbins near Jongo3-ga (or maybe Heywha...I can't remember) that is one of their most profitable stores. Same goes for Starbucks...you know how much money went through that location in MyeongDong alone? The market should dictate that the employees of these would be making more money. Unfortunately, the market doesn't work and these workers get screwed.

uberscheisse · Joined: 02 Dec 2003 Location: japan is better than korea.

another element to this is that the service industry - while in many respects 100% better and more customer-satisfaction-obsessed than in canada and the US - still has such an aversion to tipping.

yes, yes, i know... culture, blah blah but it's a damned good idea.

i mean - a nice restaurant back home, minimum wage + tips - that's a decent living.

try selling that to korea though.

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

I_Am_Wrong · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: whatever

nah, tipping is great in theory and sometimes in practice. The problem is that it's come to the point where it's absolutely expected that the server will always get a tip no matter what the service is like. It's also come to the point where if a server doesn't feel they'll get a good tip from you, they won't bother to serve you well.