Korea's minimum wage for 2027 is set at 10,700 won an hour, up 380 won or 3.7% from 10,320 won in 2026, which makes 2,236,300 won a month on a 40-hour week. But "is my pay above it" is not a question about the total. The Minimum Wage Act says separately which money counts.
1. What counts is "pay given regularly at least once a month" (Act art. 6(4)). Bonuses and meal money paid monthly have counted in full since 2024.
2. Benefits in kind never count, whatever they are worth. The same 2,236,300 won with 200,000 of meals served in kind is 9,743 won an hour — a breach.
3. Overtime, night and holiday pay come out first. 2m base pay plus 236,300 of overtime pay is 9,569 won.
4. Divide by 209 hours. 40 a week plus 8 paid rest hours; a 20-hour week is 104 hours, so 1,112,800 won a month is the line.
Enter base pay and each allowance, and it picks out the pay that counts, divides by 209 hours and says whether the result clears the 2027 (or 2026) minimum, and by how much a month if not.
It follows the Minimum Wage Act as written. The 2027 minimum is 10,700 won an hour (10,320 in 2026; decided and announced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on 5 August 2026); employers must pay at least that, and any part of a contract below it is void (Act art. 6(1), (3)). Pay that counts is pay given regularly at least once a month (art. 6(4)); the exclusions for bonuses and cash welfare pay were phased to 0% from 2024 (Addendum to Act 15666, art. 2), so they count in full. Not counted: benefits in kind (art. 6(4)3a), overtime, night and holiday pay and premiums, unused-leave pay (Rule art. 2(1)) and bonuses not paid monthly (art. 2(2)). Monthly pay converts to an hourly rate by dividing by [weekly fixed hours + paid weekly rest] × average weeks a year ÷ 12 (Decree art. 5(1)3) — 209 hours for a 40-hour week; under 15 hours a week there is no paid rest (Labour Standards Act art. 18(3)). Probation allows 90% for the first three months of a contract of a year or more (Act art. 5(2), Decree art. 3); simple labour (standard occupation class 9, notice 2018-23) gets no reduction. Fractions of a won are dropped. Piece-rate pay, the taxi-driver rule, approved exemptions and the validity of all-inclusive pay clauses are not covered. An estimate — confirm with the Ministry's helpline (1350).
2027: 10,700 won, up 380 won (3.7%)
On 5 August 2026 the Ministry of Employment and Labor decided and announced the 2027 minimum wage at 10,700 won an hour, 380 won (3.7%) above the 2026 rate of 10,320 won. The monthly conversion is 2,236,300 won (40 fixed hours a week, 209 hours a month). It runs from 1 January to 31 December 2027, the same for every industry and workplace.
| 2026 → 2027 | Change | |
|---|---|---|
| hourly | 10,320 won → 10,700 won | +380 won (3.7%) |
| daily (8 hours) | 82,560 won → 85,600 won | +3,040 won |
| monthly (209 hours) | 2,156,880 won → 2,236,300 won | +79,420 won |
| The hourly rate is the Ministry's decision of 5 August 2026; daily and monthly are the hourly rate times 8 and 209. 209 hours = [40 a week + 8 paid rest] × 365 ÷ 7 ÷ 12, rounded (Decree art. 5(1)3). | ||
What counts is "pay given regularly at least once a month"
Act art. 6(4) defines the pay to be measured against the minimum as pay given regularly at least once a month, and takes three things out: item 1, pay for anything beyond the fixed hours (as set by ministerial rule); item 2, 25% of the monthly conversion for bonuses; item 3, welfare pay — all of it if in kind, 7% if in cash.
But the Addendum to Act 15666, art. 2 stepped the 25% and 7% down year by year: 20% and 5% in 2020, 15% and 3% in 2021, 10% and 2% in 2022, 5% and 1% in 2023, and "0 percent from 2024". So today monthly bonuses and cash meal or transport money count in full, whatever they are called. Read the main text alone and it still looks like 25% and 7%; the Addendum has already set both to zero.
What still drops out
Rule art. 2(1) fills in item 1 — overtime and holiday pay and the overtime, night and holiday premiums, unused annual leave pay, and pay for paid holidays other than the weekly rest day. Art. 2(2) keeps bonuses, service and attendance allowances set over a period longer than a month out of the monthly count. And under art. 6(4)3a, benefits in kind — meals the company serves, lodging it provides — never count, whatever their value.
The same 2,236,300 won is 9,743 won an hour if meals are in kind
Take four people paid exactly 2,236,300 won a month. Base pay of 2,236,300 won alone, divided by 209, is 10,700 won — the minimum exactly. Base pay of 2m plus 200,000 of cash meal money and a 36,300 monthly bonus is also 10,700 won: all three are monthly and in cash, so all three count.
But someone on 2,036,300 of base pay who gets 200,000 worth of meals in kind has only 2,036,300 that counts — 9,743 won, 200,000 won a month short. Someone on 2m base pay plus 236,300 of overtime pay has 2m that counts — 9,569 won. Same total, but the last two are below the 2027 minimum; the shortfall is void and the minimum is deemed agreed instead (Act art. 6(3)).
| How 2,236,300 won is made up | Counts | Hourly (÷209) |
|---|---|---|
| base pay 2,236,300 won | 2,236,300 won | 10,700 won |
| 2m base + 200k cash meals + 36,300 monthly bonus | 2,236,300 won | 10,700 won |
| 2,036,300 base + 200k meals in kind | 2,036,300 won | 9,743 won |
| 2m base + 236,300 overtime pay | 2m won | 9,569 won |
| 40-hour week, fractions of a won dropped. Overtime pay is excluded because it pays for overtime, but the overtime hours themselves must also be paid at the minimum or more; only the fixed hours are tested here. | ||
Questions that remain
Probation pays 90 percent, I heard
Two conditions: a contract for a year or more, and within three months of the start of probation (Act art. 5(2)). Then the hourly rate less 10%, 9,630 won, is that person's minimum (Decree art. 3) — 2,012,670 won a month. But simple labour, meaning class 9 of the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations, gets no reduction even on probation (notice 2018-23).
What about a 20-hour part-time job?
From 15 hours a week a paid weekly rest day applies (Labour Standards Act art. 55): 20 + 4 = 24 hours, or 104 hours a month, so the 2027 line is 1,112,800 won a month. At 14 hours there is no paid rest (art. 18(3)) and the figure is 61 hours; the part-time pay calculator works the rest-day difference through in detail.
Does it rise automatically on 1 January?
Yes. Any part of a contract below the minimum is void and the minimum is "deemed" agreed (Act art. 6(3)), so 10,700 won applies from 1 January 2027 whether or not the contract is rewritten. Cutting existing pay because of the minimum wage is also prohibited (art. 6(2)).
What if my pay is an all-inclusive package?
The test is the same: strip out the overtime, night and holiday portions and divide the fixed-hours pay by 209. How much to strip depends on the clause, so the checker asks for the overtime amount directly.
What does the checker not see?
Piece-rate and output-based pay (Act art. 5(3)), the taxi-driver rule (art. 6(5)), approved exemptions for disability (art. 7), the hourly rate of the overtime itself and arrangements that split a non-monthly bonus into monthly parts are left out. Monthly hours are rounded to a whole number and fractions of a won dropped.
Sources
Ministry of Employment and Labor press release (5 Aug 2026), "2027 minimum wage: 10,700 won an hour" — source for 10,700 won, the 380 won (3.7%) rise and the 2,236,300 won monthly conversion (209 hours). The 2026 rate of 10,320 won is the Minimum Wage Commission figure checked in the part-time pay calculator.
Minimum Wage Act [in force 26 May 2020] — art. 5(2) (probation reduction; simple labour excluded), art. 6(1)-(3) (effect; no cuts; void clauses), art. 6(4) (the three exclusions), Addendum to Act 15666, art. 2 (25% and 7% to 0% from 2024).
Enforcement Decree [in force 1 Jan 2019] — art. 3 (probation: 10% off), art. 5(1) (daily, weekly, monthly pay to hourly; paid rest included), art. 5-2 (monthly conversion).
Enforcement Rule [in force 2 Jan 2026] — art. 2(1) (overtime, night, holiday and leave pay excluded), art. 2(2) (bonuses over more than a month excluded).
Ministry notice 2018-23 — simple labour = occupational class 9.
The point of this piece is one line of the Addendum — "0 percent from 2024". Leave bonuses out as if the 25% and 7% still stood and the answer is wrong; put meals in kind or overtime pay in and it is wrong the other way.
The script was checked against the same model across 5,184 combinations in both languages — 2 years × 6 weekly hours × 6 base pays × 3 bonuses × 2 cash meal amounts × 2 in-kind amounts × 2 overtime amounts × 3 probation settings, with no mismatch.
Where to check
The verdict here is an estimate. Whether an allowance is monthly, regular and uniform turns on the work rules and the contract, so confirm with the Ministry of Employment and Labor helpline (1350) or a regional labour office. Take-home pay with the rest day and tax is in the part-time pay calculator, and annual salary take-home in the salary calculator.
