In the Daebul Industrial Complex, located in Yeongam-gun, South Jeolla Province, a secondary supplier to the shipbuilding industry pays an average monthly salary of 6.5 to 7 million won to a Vietnamese worker with seven years of experience in cutting steel plates and welding. Meanwhile, their Korean counterparts performing the same tasks receive around 5.5 to 6 million won per month. The Vietnamese worker also acts as a foreman for other Vietnamese workers. The company CEO explained, “Hardworking, experienced employees deserve good pay, regardless of nationality.”
South Korea introduced the Employment Permit System (EPS) 20 years ago. Now, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), struggling to find local workers, are offering similar wages to foreign workers. The average monthly labor cost per foreign worker with an E9 visa was about 2.647 million won last year, close to 95% of domestic workers’ wages (2.792 million won).
However, foreign workers often earn more than Koreans because they work longer hours than locals. Many companies also provide housing allowances of around 200,000 won per month to foreign workers. Kwang Steel (KSC) is one of them. The company pays approximately 2.713 million won per month to newly hired foreign workers, about 430,000 won more than domestic newcomers. Gwak In-hak, CEO of KSC, added, “As nearby companies compete to recruit foreign workers, labor costs continue to rise.”
The rising wages for foreign workers result from higher demand than supply. With fewer Koreans willing to work at SMEs, businesses compete for young, skilled foreign workers, leading to higher wages and welfare levels. Over time, many foreign workers also have become indispensable professionals, with some companies even promoting illegal residents who outperform Koreans.
This trend is expected to continue. In a textile dyeing company in Daegu, elderly Korean employees are teaching younger Uzbek workers. Uzbek workers in their 20s and 30s. The company’s CEO said, “Korean textile dyeing companies may disappear without foreign workers.”
Kim Seok-ho, a sociology professor at Seoul National University, said, “Foreign workers are no longer temporary residents but essential members of our industrial sector,” calling for a systematic approach in assessing foreign workers’ language abilities, educational levels, and placing them appropriately within the workforce.
