Six business groups issued a joint statement Wednesday, saying they "welcome President Lee Jae-myung's nomination of Han Seong-sook, Minister of SMEs and Startups, as the new prime minister nominee." They also urged that "the nominee take the lead in regulatory innovation and creating a business-friendly environment based on communication with companies." Korean companies, for whom the artificial intelligence (AI) transformation is urgent, are now struggling amid the restructuring of global supply chains, instability in the Middle East, and the "triple-high" crisis of high exchange rates, high interest rates, and high prices. If the nominee, a former CEO of an information technology (IT) company, takes office as prime minister, can policymaking gain momentum to correct labor policies tilted toward unions and to encourage corporate investment and employment?
According to a report released Wednesday by the Korea SME and Startups Institute, the average monthly special pay at small and medium-sized enterprises falls far short of that at large companies. Last year, the average monthly special pay at SMEs was 208,000 won, just 17.4% of the 1.195 million won at large companies. As demands for "N% performance bonuses," originating from Samsung Electronics, spread across all industries including automobiles, bio, and platforms, wage polarization is likely to worsen. The government must quickly come up with countermeasures so that resolving the polarization between large companies and SMEs does not end as empty rhetoric.
