Korea's 2026 minimum wage is ₩10,320 an hour and ₩10,700 from 2027

This guide is for employers, payroll staff and workers in Korea, including foreign residents. In 2026 the minimum wage is ₩10,320 an hour, and every working hour must be paid at least that much. From January 1, 2027 it rises to ₩10,700.

The 2026 rate and how it was set

The Minimum Wage Commission (최저임금위원회) decided the 2026 rate at its 12th plenary meeting on July 10, 2025. The Minister of Employment and Labor announced it in Ministry of Employment and Labor Notice No. 2025-47 (고용노동부 고시 제2025-47호) on August 5, 2025. It applies from January 1 to December 31, 2026 (Minimum Wage Act (최저임금법), Article 10(2)).

• Increase: ₩290 (2.9%) over the 2025 rate of ₩10,030.
• Process: the first decision by agreement of worker, employer and public members since 2008, 17 years earlier. Four worker members from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (민주노총) walked out before the agreement.
• Context: it was the lowest first-year increase under a new government since the Kim Dae-jung government's 2.7%.
• Reach: about 2,904,000 workers were expected to be affected based on the supplementary Economically Active Population Survey (경제활동인구조사 부가조사), or 782,000 based on the Survey on Labor Conditions by Employment Type (고용형태별 근로실태조사).

The 2027 rate of ₩10,700 (up ₩380, or 3.7%) was decided by vote at the 14th plenary meeting on July 14, 2026 and announced in Notice No. 2026-60 on August 5, 2026.

Hourly, daily, monthly and yearly figures

The 209 hours come from Article 5(1), item 3 of the Enforcement Decree (시행령): 40 contractual hours a week plus 8 hours of paid weekly holiday (유급주휴) make 48 hours, multiplied by the average number of weeks in a year and divided by 12. About 35 of the 209 hours are paid weekly holiday. Part-time staff put their own contractual hours into the same formula.

Compared with 2025, the monthly minimum rose by ₩60,610 and the yearly amount by ₩727,320. All figures are gross pay. Take-home pay is lower after income tax and social insurance contributions are deducted.

What counts toward the minimum wage

Article 6(4) of the Act counts wages paid regularly at least once a month. Since 2024, monthly bonuses and monthly cash allowances for meals, transport or lodging count in full (Act No. 15666, Addenda Article 2). These do not count:

• pay for overtime and holiday work, and premiums for overtime, night and holiday work;
• pay for unused annual leave, and pay for paid holidays other than the weekly paid holiday (Enforcement Rule (시행규칙), Article 2(1));
• bonuses paid every two months or less often, such as holiday bonuses paid twice a year, because they are not paid every month;
• meals, housing and other benefits given in kind rather than in cash.

So a low base salary is not a violation if base pay plus the monthly items that count reach the minimum wage.

Probation: when 90% is allowed

An employer may pay 90% of the minimum wage (₩9,288 an hour in 2026) during probation only if all three conditions are met (Article 5(2) of the Act, Article 3 of the Enforcement Decree):

1. The employment contract sets a term of one year or more. Under a shorter fixed-term contract, probation is paid at 100%.
2. The reduction lasts only for the first 3 months from the start of probation. If probation is 6 months, months 4 to 6 must be paid in full.
3. The job is not a simple manual job. Ministry of Employment and Labor Notice No. 2018-23 defines these as jobs in major group 9, simple manual workers (단순노무 종사자), of the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations (한국표준직업분류). These workers get 100% even on probation.

Unemployment benefit: the floor and the cap

The job-seeking benefit (구직급여), the main unemployment benefit, is 60% of the worker's average daily wage before leaving (Employment Insurance Act (고용보험법), Articles 45 and 46). The minimum wage sets the floor: 80% of the hourly minimum wage times the worker's daily contractual hours.

• 2026 floor: ₩10,320 × 80% × 8 hours = ₩66,048 a day for an 8-hour day.
• 2026 cap: for people who left their job on or after January 1, 2026, the base daily wage is capped at ₩113,500 instead of ₩110,000 (Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act, Article 68), so the benefit cap is ₩68,100 a day. People who left before that date keep the old cap of ₩66,000.

Some articles written in 2025 said the cap would stay at ₩66,000 and fall below the floor. That did not happen: the cap was raised. For people who leave in 2027, the current formula gives a floor of ₩68,480 for an 8-hour day, above the ₩68,100 cap. On September 1, 2026 the Ministry announced a reform plan to link the cap to the floor and to pay benefits on a six-day week basis. It needs changes to the law, so check the final rules before January 2027.

If wages fall below the minimum

• A contract term below the minimum wage is void for that part, and the minimum wage applies instead (Article 6(3)).
• Paying less than the minimum wage, or cutting existing wages because of it, can bring up to 3 years in prison or a fine of up to ₩20 million, or both (Article 28(1)).
• The Act covers every business that employs workers, except businesses employing only relatives who live together and domestic workers (Article 3). The Labor Standards Act (근로기준법) bans unequal working conditions on the basis of nationality (Article 6), so foreign workers are covered on the same terms.
• Workers can file a complaint (진정) with the regional employment and labor office (지방고용노동관서), or online through the Labor Portal (노동포털, labor.moel.go.kr). A labor inspector (근로감독관) can enter the workplace, ask for records and question the people involved (Article 26). The Ministry's call center number is 1350.

Checklist

• Check that each employee's hourly equivalent is at least ₩10,320 in 2026 and ₩10,700 from January 1, 2027.
• Count only items paid every month, and leave out overtime pay and in-kind benefits.
• Use the 90% probation rate only if all three conditions are met.
• Tell workers the 2027 minimum wage by December 31, 2026; see 2027 minimum wage ₩10,700: notify workers by December 31, 2026.
• Update contracts and payroll budgets before January.