organization:national assembly’s foreign affairs, trade and unification committee

  • Wages and Wage Payments at Kaesong in North Korea

    Un peu plus de précision sur les salaires et les revenus dans la zone franche de kaesong (Corée du Nord)

    http://www.piie.com/blogs/nk/?p=8216

    October is parliamentary inspection season in South Korea, which means overtime for ministry officials as they scramble to provide answers to questions from National Assembly committees and members. An item in Yonhap (in Korean) reported on questions about Kaesong posed by members of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee; the answers from the Ministry of Unification provide some interesting detail on wages and wage payments in the industrial zone.

    According to the MOU, the average monthly wage at KIC has reached $128.3 as of the first half of 2012. This marks a steady increase from $68.1 in 2006, $71.0 in 2007, $74.1 in 2008, $80.3 in 2009, $93.7 in 2010, $109.3 in 2011. One source of the increase is a built-in escalator clause on the minimum wage payment, which started at $50 and has increased 5% a year over the last six years. But that only gets you to about $67 for this year.