South Korea National minimum wage (최저임금)
South Korea National minimum wage (최저임금) is 10320 KRW/hour, in force since 1 Jan 2026, cited to 고용노동부 고시 제2025-47호 「2026년 적용 최저임금 고시」. It was 10030 KRW/hour before that. Last checked against the official source on 20 Jul 2026.
Official source: 고용노동부 고시 제2025-47호 「2026년 적용 최저임금 고시」 · Last checked 2026-07-20 · source fingerprint
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-wageEmail me when this changes
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Other 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 · Tax filing deadlines
The same figure elsewhere: Sri Lanka · Taiwan · Thailand · Türkiye · United Arab Emirates · all 28