Korea's Minimum Wage Crossed 10,000 Won, and Your High Schoolers Already Have a Job to Compare It To
South Korea's 2025 minimum wage rose to 10,030 won an hour, the first time it has passed 10,000, giving high schoolers with part-time jobs a real number to argue about instead of a hypothetical one.
Park English2026-09-093 min read
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Every August, Korea's Minimum Wage Commission announces next year's hourly rate, and every January it kicks in. For 2025 that number is 10,030 won an hour, up from 9,860 won in 2024. It's a small raise, 1.7%, but it crossed a line people had been watching for years: the first time Korea's minimum wage has gone over 10,000 won.
This matters in your classroom more than you'd think. A lot of Korean high schoolers work part-time, legally, at convenience stores, cafés, and fast food chains, usually with a parent's written consent since they're under 18. They know exactly what their friend at CU makes an hour. Ask them and they'll have an opinion before you finish the sentence.
The basic numbers
| 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly minimum wage | 9,860 won | 10,030 won |
| Change | — | +1.7% |
| Monthly (209 hrs, full-time) | ~2,060,740 won | ~2,096,270 won |
Check the current figure before you teach this. It's reset every year in August and this article won't age well.
Why it split opinion
Small business owners, especially the convenience store and café franchise associations, said 1.7% still isn't small enough given how many are barely breaking even. Labor groups said it's the smallest real-terms increase in years once you account for inflation, and pushed for closer to 12,000 won. Both sides showed up to the same negotiation and neither left happy, which is usually a sign the number landed somewhere reasonable.
Pros and cons your students will bring up themselves
- For workers: More money per hour, obviously. For a student working 15 hours a week, that's roughly an extra 2,500 won — not life-changing, but it adds up over a semester.
- For small business owners: Higher labor costs on top of rent, and many say they've already cut staff hours or switched to kiosks instead of hiring.
- For the economy overall: Some economists argue a higher minimum wage puts more money into circulation. Others argue it accelerates automation — self-checkout, kiosk ordering — because a machine doesn't need a raise.
- For the debate itself: This isn't a one-sided issue, which is exactly why it works as a discussion class. There's a real cost and a real benefit on both sides, and nobody's parents are entirely wrong.
Running the lesson (45 minutes)
- Warm-up (5 min): Ask who has a part-time job, or knows someone who does, and what they get paid.
- Input (10 min): Put the table on the board. Ask what 1.7% actually means in real money for a month of full-time work.
- Group debate (20 min): Split into "raise it more," "keep it as is," and "small business owners" groups. Give each group two minutes to make their case, then open the floor.
- Wrap (10 min): Ask each student to say one sentence: would you rather have a higher minimum wage or more hours available at your part-time job? That question usually reveals more than the debate itself.
One thing worth admitting: teenagers arguing about minimum wage sometimes turns into teenagers arguing about their own family's small business, since a lot of parents run cafés or convenience stores. Read the room before you assign sides.