PPP lawmaker criticizes Democratic Party bill to pay bonuses in local currency

People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun criticized a Democratic Party-backed bill that would allow companies to pay part of workers' bonuses and performance pay in local currency, calling it an attempt to turn South Korea into a "local currency republic."

Yoon posted on his Facebook page Thursday, saying Democratic Party lawmakers had introduced an amendment to the Labor Standards Act that would permit employers to pay a portion of performance bonuses in local currency.

"Why should workers who have earned their results through hard work be forced to have their spending controlled by politicians — dictated where and how to use their own wages?" he said. "Telling workers to spend their bonuses only at designated areas and affiliated stores is an arrogant idea that strips them of their freedom to choose how to spend their money."

He added that the local currency-centered policies pursued by President Lee Jae-myung and the Democratic Party raised concerns about whether they were trying to turn South Korea into a "local currency republic."

"If this logic holds, won't someone eventually argue that the national pension should also be paid in local currency?" Yoon said. "Revitalizing local economies is important. But the way to do it cannot be by restricting workers' wages and their freedom to spend them."

He called on the party to halt what he described as populist overreach driven by a misunderstanding of market economics. "This legislation that holds workers' rightful wages and spending freedom hostage to local currency absolutism must be withdrawn immediately," he said. "Workers' performance bonuses are not subjects for policy experiments. The rewards of labor must be something workers can use as freely as possible."