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The nation's two labor groups yesterday released statements calling for a significant minimum wage increase.

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) demanded a 22 percent increase in the minimum wage this year in a statement titled "Minimum wages are not starvation wages."

The umbrella labor group called the nation's minimum wage system absurd, saying it was inadequate to cover the average cost of living.

The current minimum wage of 361,000 won (about $326), the FKTU pointed out, accounts for just 32 percent of the average wage for Korean salaried workers. When the minimum wage system began in 1988, the rate was closer to 40 percent.

The group added that only about 1.1 percent of the nation's work force, or 53,760 people, were even eligible for the minimum wage this year.

Korea's minimum wage, in proportion to the average wage for full-time workers, which is about 27.4 percent, also ranks near the bottom among OECD countries, the FKTU said.

The minimum wage in Japan and the U.S. makes up 34.9 percent of the average wages for full-time workers. The figures in New Zealand and France are 41 percent and 55.3 percent, respectively.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), citing the need to protect the nation's growing number of contract and part-time workers, also called on the government to raise the minimum wage such that it makes up 50 percent of the average wage.

The KCTU urged the government to implement the minimum wage system in all work places, saying smaller firms were more likely to offer low wages. Currently, only employees in companies with five or more workers are entitled to the minimum wage.

According to figures compiled by the Labor Ministry, as of September 1998, employees at firms with four workers or less received about 63.8 percent of the wages earned by their counterparts at firms with 10 or more employees.

Meanwhile, the minimum wage deliberation committee had its first plenary meeting of the year yesterday. The committee will decide on a revised minimum wage by the end of June this year.