Mid-sized Firms Chief Calls for Greater Autonomy in Setting Working Hours, Minimum Wage

Choi Jin-sik, chairman of the Korea Federation of Mid-sized Companies, said Friday that working hours, minimum wage and other labor-management issues should be opened up to greater voluntary negotiation between companies and workers — a shift he said is needed to create better jobs and restore hope for young Koreans.

Speaking at a policy forum with Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon at the Korea Listed Companies Association Hall in Seoul, Choi said the 26 consecutive months of declining youth employment "is not a mere statistic but a painful reality demanding urgent action from our community."

Youth employment data bear out the concern. According to the Ministry of Statistics' June employment survey, the employment rate for people aged 15 to 29 stood at 43.9 percent, down 1.7 percentage points from a year earlier — a 26th consecutive monthly decline. The number of employed young people fell by 197,000, extending a contraction that has now lasted 44 months. By contrast, the number of employed people aged 65 and older rose by 343,000, underscoring a widening generational gap in which growth among older workers is propping up overall employment figures.

"Restoring young people's sense of vision and purpose starts with having good jobs as a foundation for their lives," Choi said. "We must pool our wisdom to invigorate companies — the source of employment — through the rationalization of laws, systems and policies, and to expand quality jobs."

The forum brought together Kim and Choi alongside Gu Ja-gwan, managing partner of Samgu I&C Technology; Lee Gang-su, vice chairman of Douzone Bizon; Ahn Ki-hong, chief executive of Genesis BBQ; Jang Ji-hwang, chief executive of Megazone; Lee Jong-u, chief executive of Zeus; Im Su-min, chief executive of Dain Jeonggong; and Yang Seung-bin, vice president of Howon.

Business leaders at the forum said "institutional support to accelerate the pace of response in research and development and on the production floor is essential to cope with the rapid industrial transformation driven by the spread of AI," and called on the government to "actively consider flexible application of working-hour rules tailored to the real needs of companies by sector and region."

The federation presented 10 reform proposals on employment and labor regulation to address demographic and industrial structural change, covering areas including building a foundation for continued employment across generations, improving labor flexibility, shifting to job- and performance-based pay systems, making working-hour rules more flexible, and supplementing trade union legislation.

Minister Kim said his ministry would "carefully examine the various difficulties facing mid-sized companies — the cradle of good jobs that young people prefer — and work out effective solutions," adding that it would "spare no support in working with the federation as a policy partner to create an environment where companies can invest in people."

Choi said that "for meaningful labor reform, a policy shift that expands voluntary negotiation between labor and management — as the parties who best understand the needs and limits of issues such as minimum wage, working hours and retirement age extension — is essential," and pledged to "do our utmost to build the legal and institutional foundation for a better business environment and to create more opportunities for a grand tripartite accord among labor, management and government."