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“Ten thousand won or 5,580 won ‘plus alpha.’ Which do you choose?”

The Minimum Wage Council held its third plenary session on the afternoon of June 4 at the Central Government Complex in Sejong. The meeting of the council, which is setting the minimum wage for 2016, comes as many in the labor community are getting behind the idea of a minimum wage of 10,000 won (US$8.98).

Speaking at a press conference the same day in front of the Central Government Complex in Seoul, representatives of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) said an hourly wage of 10,000 won and monthly pay of 2.09 million won (US$1,880) “must be guaranteed to ensure a basic standard of living.”

So what would happen if the two minimum wage plans - one from labor, the other from management - were put up for a popular vote? The Labor Party is conducting an online referendum (10000.laborparty.kr) from May 31 to June 27 to ask the public what a suitable minimum wage would be.

Visitors to the site simply need to vote for one of the two plans: the labor plan, which proposes raising the minimum wage to 10,000 won an hour to guarantee a living for minimum wage workers and their families, or the management plan, which is to stabilize the yearly hike at a level of 5,580 won (US$5.01) “plus alpha” - or a fixed amount to be decided later - to avoid an excessive burden on companies.

The 5,580-won number is the current minimum wage in 2015. Business leaders appear poised to demand either the same level in 2016, or one raised by just one to two percent.

“This may not be a vote that has the public‘s confidence behind it, but we wanted to be able to capture the opinions on both sides, labor and management, and to say what minimum wage level the public wants,” explained Jeong Jin-woo, who heads the office of the Labor Party’s “campaign to guarantee rights for all workers with a 10,000-won minimum wage.”

A notice calling for business community participation was previously sent to the Korea Employers’ Federation on June 2.

“Many South Koreans are minimum wage workers, and we’re trying to steer the minimum wage issue toward a decision that reflects the public‘s wishes rather than a unilateral decision by the Minimum Wage Council,” said Jeong.

Around 1,900 people had voted as of the afternoon of June 4. The results of the ballot are scheduled to be delivered to the Minimum Wage Council plenary session to decide the minimum wage on June 29.

By Bang Jun-ho, staff reporter

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