Result from Low Inflation Rate

During the past five years, the annual average increase in real wages of South Korean workers’ stood at 1.34% while the average real economic growth rate was 2.96% a year.
During the past five years, the annual average increase in real wages of South Korean workers’ stood at 1.34% while the average real economic growth rate was 2.96% a year.

 

It has been found that the rate of increase in South Korean workers’ real wages recently topped South Korea’s real economic growth rate for the first time in three years, led mainly by its low inflation rate and the South Korean government’s wage policy.

Still, during the past five years, the annual average increase in real wages stood at 1.34% while the average real economic growth rate was 2.96% a year, implying that more efforts are needed for an increase in income. 

The Ministry of Strategy & Finance and the Ministry of Employment & Labor announced on March 13 that the average real wages of South Korean workers working for businesses with at least five regular employees rose by 2.7% from a year ago to 3.005 million won a month last year, when South Korea recorded a real economic growth rate of 2.6%. Experts attributed this to the country’s inflation rate as low as 0.7% a year and the effect of an increase in minimum wage. 

In spite of the increase in real wages that was recorded last year, the real wages showed an annual average increase of merely 1.34% from 2011 to 2015, less than half of the average economic growth rate for the same period. 

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