The government plans to allow Southeast Asian domestic helpers to work in Seoul as early as this year, but the pilot project will not include previously suggested provisions allowing employers to pay them below the minimum wage.
In a bid to raise the country’s record-low birth rate, Seoul City and the Ministry of Employment and Labor are reviewing a pilot project to bring domestic helpers from countries such as the Philippines to help families with childcare and housework.
“Within the first half of this year, we will draw up detailed plans on how to introduce the foreign domestic worker system, including when (it will start) and how many workers will be involved (in the pilot project)," a ministry official said.
The government plans to issue E-9 visas for the workers through the addition of domestic help to the list of fields allowed under the employment permit system. The workers can then be hired by families in Korea through certified service providers as early as this fall.
With South Korea’s minimum wage of 9,620 won ($7.27) per hour applied, foreign domestic workers’ hourly pay would be more than 30 percent lower than that of existing domestic helpers in Korea. The average hourly wages for local domestic helpers is around 13,000 won for Chinese nationals of Korean descent and over 15,000 won for Koreans.
Foreign domestic helpers are also likely to commute, rather than work as live-in helpers.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has frequently called for foreign domestic workers...
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