Foreign workers' unpaid wages will increase by 35.5% in 2025... 30,684 people damaged

(Naju = Yonhap News) Reporter Jeon Seung-hyeon = Unpaid wages to foreign workers have been found to be rapidly increasing.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor by Democratic Party lawmaker Shin Jeong-hoon (Naju, Hwasun, Gwangju, Jeollanam-do), a member of the Climate, Energy, Environment, and Labor Committee of the National Assembly on the 8th, the number of victims of non-payment of wages to foreign workers in 2025 is 30,684, an increase of 8,036, or 35.5%, from 22,648 in 2024.

The amount of unpaid wages increased by 43.6%, or 47 billion won, from 107.8 billion won to 154.8 billion won during the same period.

While the total amount of wage arrears, including for domestic workers, increased by about 3.0% from KRW 1.9425 trillion in 2024 to KRW 2.06 trillion in 2025, the amount of arrears for foreign workers surged by 43.6%.

The proportion of foreign worker arrears among the total arrears also increased by 2.2 percentage points from 5.5% in 2024 to 7.7% in 2025.

As of 2025, by industry, the construction industry had the largest number of affected workers at 11,326, and the manufacturing industry had the largest amount of arrears at 71.9 billion won.

By business size, the concentration of small businesses was evident.

As of 2025, the amount of arrears incurred by foreign workers at workplaces with less than five employees was KRW 71.6 billion, and the number of affected workers was 16,998.

The amount of arrears for businesses with less than 30 employees was 138.6 billion won, or 89.5% of the total, and the number of affected workers was 28,029, or 91.3% of the total.

As of 2025, the amount of arrears incurred by foreign workers in Gyeonggi-do was 52.5 billion won, accounting for 33.9% of the country's total, and the number of affected workers was the largest at 10,068.

Rep. Shin Jeong-hoon said, “Korea should not become a country where foreign workers have to take the risk of having their wages deducted,” and added, “We must switch to a field-centered, one-stop relief system that immediately deploys a dedicated team to regions and industries with frequent non-payment and businesses with repeated non-payment.”