The Korea Local Administration Review

Focusing on Seoul, this study identifies the scale, characteristics, and causes of the exclusion of retired career job from the minimum wage. The results reveal that older workers paid below the national minimum wage account for about 28 percent of full-time re-employed workers based on the monthly wage. In this study, 23 out of 100 re-employed older workers are classified as excluded from the minimum wage, although all workers should protect from the minimum wage. In addition, work below the national minimum wage would have been accepted by workers who had not accumulated sufficient income to support full retirement. Many older workers, unable or unwilling to retire, found an alternative in the form of on the job retirement because they could not no longer to be retired. However, this may be accomplished by moving to a low wage job especially being paid below the national minimum wage. For these workers, there may be no alternative except to work for below the minimum wage. However, all workers should be paid minimum wage regardless of their labor status and age.