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His oldest child is a fifth grader in elementary school. The second is in second grade, and the third is just a year old. Park Chang-min, the 45-year-old father in this large family, juggles two jobs when evening comes around. The two million won (US$1,890) he earns each month as foreman for a landscaping company is not enough to support a family of five. So after a workday lasting from 6:40 am to 5 pm, he sets off for a 9 pm to midnight shift for a designated driver service for people who have been drinking and are unable to drive. In all, he works 15 hours a day. He only visits home to sleep.

“With the economy getting worse, my income from the designated driver service is half the million won a month it used to be,” Park said. “My oldest wants to be a figure skater, but I don’t think I can make that happen.”

Park is one of many low-income parents who have been forced into moonlighting, overtime, and long working hours. The only way out of the long hour trap lies in more realistic wages.

Many fathers at the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) are now turning to disconnection as a way of earning extra income through overtime. Six years ago, Song Tae-su, 45, had been sending out electricity bills and checking meters when he was rotated into disconnection duties. Twice a week, he would do overtime work until 11 pm, earning as much as a million won more a month.

“Two million won a month is the minimum for survival,” he said. “My oldest needed speech therapy, and I couldn’t afford it.”

According to a 2013 OECD report on employment prospects, 25.1% of all South Korean workers were classified as low-wage, meaning that they earned less than two-thirds the medium wage for full-time workers. Together with the US, it had one of the two highest rates in the organization.

Another 2013 report on labor environments examined 3,717 employees at the Seoul Digital Industrial Complex. The average wage reported by respondents was just 1.96 million won (US$1,860) a month.

“To earn 1.8 million won (US$1,700) a month, [workers] have to work an extra 20 hours a week. To earn 2 million won, they have to work until late at night and on holidays,” wrote Research Institute for Alternative Workers Movements planning office director Park Jun-do in the report.

A total of 265 respondents in the survey, or 10.5%, said they worked an average of 10 hours or more a day.

By Kim Hyo-jin, staff reporter

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