The Ministry of Employment and Labor has requested the Supreme Court's sentencing committee to strengthen the sentencing guidelines for wage theft crimes. With the revised Labor Standards Act set to take effect in October, increasing the legal penalties for wage theft, the ministry argues that actual court sentences should reflect the severity of these crimes.
On July 9, Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon met with the committee's chairman, Lee Dong-won, to discuss improvements to the sentencing guidelines for wage theft offenses.
According to the ministry, the scale of wage theft in South Korea exceeded 2 trillion won last year and remains high this year. In 2022, the total amount of unpaid wages reached 2.0679 trillion won, affecting 262,000 workers. As of May this year, the cumulative unpaid wages amounted to 772.7 billion won, impacting 91,206 workers.
In response, the government announced a comprehensive plan to eradicate wage theft in September 2022, which includes stricter penalties for habitual offenders, enhanced support for wage recovery, and the establishment of a preventive oversight system. Additionally, the revised Labor Standards Act, effective October 8, will increase the legal penalties for wage theft from a maximum of three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won to a maximum of five years in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won.
The ministry believes that the sentencing guidelines should also be revised to ensure that penalties are effective in deterring wage theft. The current guidelines, established in 2016, categorize wage theft crimes based on the amount owed: under 50 million won, between 50 million and 100 million won, and over 100 million won. For cases involving over 100 million won, the basic sentence ranges from eight months to one and a half years in prison, with aggravated sentences ranging from one year and two months to two and a half years.
During the meeting, the ministry requested adjustments to the current guidelines, advocating for harsher penalties for larger amounts of unpaid wages. It emphasized that habitual and intentional wage theft should be punished more severely than cases arising from business difficulties, and that factors such as the number of affected workers or the duration of the wage theft should also be considered in sentencing.
The ministry also called for the establishment of new sentencing guidelines for fines. It noted that most wage theft cases result in minor fines, but there are currently no established guidelines for these penalties, highlighting the need for a framework that corresponds to the scale of the damage.
Kim Young-hoon stated, "Wages must be paid on time and fairly as a rightful compensation for labor, and this principle must be upheld in all cases. Wage theft is a serious crime that threatens not only the livelihood of individual workers but also the lives of their families." He added, "To ensure that policies aimed at eradicating wage theft are effective in practice, it is essential to establish strict sentencing guidelines that correspond to the severity of the crime, and we will continue to consult with the sentencing committee on this matter."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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