Wage can be the only means to secure workers’ survival and satisfactory working conditions. For the Korean wage system, wage and average wage are directly defined in Article 2 of the Labor Standards Act. However, the definition of ordinary wage is j...
Wage can be the only means to secure workers’ survival and satisfactory working conditions. For the Korean wage system, wage and average wage are directly defined in Article 2 of the Labor Standards Act. However, the definition of ordinary wage is just specified in Article 6 of the enforcement ordinance of the same act.
In particular, the existing precedents of ordinary wages do not partially accord with standards of judgement of the administrative interpretation because legal standards of judgement are not concrete or clear even though they forms the basis of calculating all kinds of fringe pay or additional wages. Furthermore, it caused legal and practical confusion as the legal principles were changed without clear reasons for arguments even though there are precedents.
The scope and standards of judgement about ordinary wages which have been controversial in the meantime were concretely suggested by the judgement of the full member Supreme Court on Dec. 18th, 2013. However, ordinary wages are still complicated and ambiguous even though the judgement of the full member Supreme Court of 2013 suggested clearer legal principles than the existing precedents. It is highly dubious whether juridical interpretation of periodicity, uniformity, and fixedness, only which are the abstract standards of judgement, is right or not. Ultimately, this judgement of the full member Supreme Court did not solve the problems of ordinary wages, but caused other interpretative issues. So as interests of labor and management grow more conflicting, several problems have been raised again.
There are a number of interpretative problems and issues of law principles about this ordinary wage system. The interpretative problems are summarized as follows: first, the ordinance related to ordinary wages is unclear; second, there is no any provision that ordinary wages should be obligatory specified in working conditions; third, the legal concept and standards of judgement of ordinary wages are ambiguous; fourth, the wage systems of the companies are complicated and the scope to calculate ordinary wages is different; fifth, problems that wages and ordinary wages are mutually related are not being investigated and revealed. In addition to these interpretative problems, there many issues of law principles. First, should the characteristics of ordinary wages be denied because of a lack of fixedness of all the wages which is decided to pay workers during office in a pay day and a certain period regardless of their work? Second, is it right that regular bonuses with certain fixed conditions are judged to be applicable to ordinary wages, while all kinds of welfare benefits which have been admitted in the court rulings in the meantime are excluded from ordinary wages? Third, is it valid that the demand for additional wages concerning all kinds of unpaid legal benefits is limited by saying violation of the principle of good faith and bottlenecks in management will be caused in companies even though agreement between labor and management that regular bonuses are supposed to be excluded from calculation of ordinary wages is invalid because it violates the Labor Standards Acts? Therefore, the ordinary wage system should be abolished to form the advanced relation between labor and management which can overcome the problems and limits of the current ordinary wage system and reduce wage conflicts between labor and management and simplify the wage system. Furthermore, it is thought that the standard wage system, the new, simple, clear, and expectable basics to calculate additional wages which reflect the negative list, not the positive list, should be introduced and a clear legal concept should be again established as an alternative. It is expected that this standard wage system will strengthen the basis of the additional wage system which can accord with modern wage systems according to changes of the next labor environment, simplify composition of wages, and raise their legal stability as it is introduced.