South Korea National minimum wage (최저임금)
South Korea National minimum wage (최저임금) is 10320 KRW/hour, in force since 1 Jan 2026. It was 10030 KRW/hour before that. Last checked against the official source on 20 Jul 2026.
Single national statutory minimum hourly wage under the Minimum Wage Act, set annually by the Minimum Wage Commission and gazetted by the Minister of Employment and Labor by 5 August for the following calendar year.
| Current value | 10320 KRW/hour |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-01-01 |
| In force until | 2026-12-31 |
| Official source | 고용노동부 고시 제2025-47호 「2026년 적용 최저임금 고시」 (Ministry of Employment and Labor Notice No. 2025-47, promulgated 2025-08-05) under the Minimum Wage Act (최저임금법) |
| Last verified | 2026-07-20 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
Single national rate — no regional, sectoral or age matrix; applies to all workplaces with 1+ workers across all industries. KRW 10,320/hour = +2.9% (KRW 290) over 2025's 10,030; official monthly equivalent KRW 2,156,880 for a standard 209-hour month (40h/week including paid weekly-rest hours). Decided by tripartite consensus of the Minimum Wage Commission on 2025-07-10 — the first labor-management-public consensus decision in 17 years — and gazetted 2025-08-05. The MOEL notice page (loaded) carries the figures in an attached PDF; amounts cross-verified on the Minimum Wage Commission decision-status table (https://www.minimumwage.go.kr/minWage/policy/decisionMain.do — loaded 2026-07-20) and the MOEL press release of the same date. The 2027 rate is being deliberated now (decision due July-August 2026).
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-01-01 | 10030 | — |
| 2024-01-01 | 9860 | — |
| 2023-01-01 | 9620 | — |
| 2022-01-01 | 9160 | — |
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/kr/minimum-wage
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/kr/minimum-wage/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/kr/minimum-wageOther South Korea series: Bank of Korea Base Rate · Statutory interest (법정이율) · Value-Added Tax (부가가치세) standard rate · VAT registration threshold · Public holidays · Consumer price inflation (소비자물가 상승률) · Corporate income tax (법인세) top rate · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax (종합소득세) schedule · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Sri Lanka · Taiwan · Thailand · Türkiye · United Arab Emirates · all 28