Ordinary wage: number of requirements a payment must satisfy
Ordinary wage is the multiplicand for every premium on a Korean payslip, so its scope decides more money than any single rate does — and unlike the rates, it moves by judgment rather than by amendment. An en banc Supreme Court decision in 2024 discarded the fixedness requirement, which widened the range of allowances that can qualify. Guidance written before that decision states the test in a form that no longer holds, and nothing on its face says so.
- Applies to
- Every premium calculation, since extended, night and holiday pay are all multiples of ordinary wage
- Review cadence
- Checked once a year
What we have recorded
- 2026-09-20regularity and uniformity
Until an en banc Supreme Court decision in 2024 a payment had to be regular, uniform and fixed to form part of ordinary wage. The fixedness requirement was discarded, so position, qualification and certain bonus payments made regularly and uniformly as consideration for contractual work fall to be reassessed. An employer computing premiums from base pay alone is not automatically correct.
Supreme Court en banc decision on ordinary wage (2024); Labor Standards Act, art. 56
One reading so far. This becomes a history the first time the figure moves while we are watching — which is the part that cannot be reconstructed later.
Guides that depend on this figure
When this figure moves, every guide above needs the same edit. That is why it is tracked here rather than copied into each one.