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China News Service, August 1. According to Yonhap News Agency, data released by the South Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 1st showed that the amount of wage arrears owed by domestic companies in the first half of this year (January to June) reached 1.0436 trillion won (about 5.5 billion yuan), an increase of 26.8% year-on-year; the number of people owed wages was 150,503, an increase of 14.1% year-on-year.

According to the report, 78.9% (823.8 billion won) of the unpaid wages in the first half of the year have been settled. Last year, the unpaid wages of enterprises reached 1.7846 trillion won, setting a new record, but this year, the unpaid wages exceeded 1 trillion won in the first six months alone, which is an unusual increase.This is the first time that South Korea's wage arrears have exceeded 1 trillion won in half a year.

The report pointed out that the increase in the amount of wage arrears of Korean companies is mainly due to the economic downturn. Specifically, the manufacturing industry had the largest amount of wage arrears in the first half of the year, which was 287.2 billion won; the construction industry's wage arrears increased by 49.2% year-on-year last year, and increased by 26% year-on-year in the first half of this year, accounting for 23.7% of the total wage arrears; the health industry's wage arrears reached 71.7 billion won, a surge of 67.8% year-on-year. In addition, the sluggish domestic demand that led to the closure of self-employed businesses is also one of the reasons for the increase in wage arrears.

The report mentioned that under this circumstance, the South Korean government will not only strengthen supervision and punishment, but also promote the revision of the labor law to strengthen the punishment of units that owe wages. (China News Service APP)