가사노동자의 최저임금제도 적용에 관한 쟁점과 대안

The Labor Standards Act does not apply to ‘Servants hired for the employer's domestic works’. The Minimum Wage Act is not applicable either. Recently, many changes have been occurring as a law governing domestic workers was newly enacted and foreign domestic workers are expected to be introduced to the Korean market. In consequence, the issue of how to apply the minimum wage system to domestic workers currently not legally eligible for the minimum wage system and foreign domestic workers scheduled to be imported has risen as an important topic. The recent trends in revising labor-related laws exhibit the direction toward the expansion of the scope of protection. Such revisions are in the process of modernizing the outdated labor-related laws. From this point of view, it is necessary to seek new labor law provisions to protect domestic workers. Among them, guaranteeing the minimum wage is the most important task. The minimum wage system sets the minimum standard for wages applied to workers, and also seeks to provide social security and the living standard to the members of society who participate in the workforce. According to this definition, the guarantee of the minimum wage has an important meaning beyond the exchange of labor and wage, which is to recognize the social contribution of workers. Therefore, the minimum wage needs to be applied to all domestic workers. Such premise should not be changed for foreign workers. Therefore, both the exclusion of domestic workers from the application of the minimum wage system and the differential application of the minimum wage based on nationality are problematic. However, for now, methodological consideration needs to precede to incrementally apply the minimum wage system. It is possible to consider expanding the scope of the Act. On the premise that the minimum wage will be applied to domestic workers as well in the future, a plan to do so gradually can be devised. The ‘childcare service’ project in the partial implementation phase at the moment can be expanded and evolve into domestic labor support projects. If the minimum wage system can not be applied to domestic workers immediately, it is necessary to prepare guidelines to protect domestic workers’ rights. Through these efforts to improve the system, a reasonable and appropriate minimum wage system could be devised to guarantee the rights of domestic workers.