Comprehensive wage system scheduled to be abolished next year

The Ministry of Employment and Labor has decided to legislate a bill banning the comprehensive wage system in the first half of next year to ‘eradicate free labor.’ A plan to regulate night work, which is cited as the cause of the continued deaths of Coupang logistics center and delivery workers, will be prepared by September next year.

The Ministry of Labor said it would reduce actual working hours to the average level of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries (1,700 hours per year) within its term, and decided to push for a bill banning the comprehensive wage system, which is considered the main culprit of long hours and free work, and mandating the measurement and recording of working hours.