Useful Info

An allowance paid in a certain amount or at a certain rate depending on the number of dependents. Since real wages are low, many companies provide compensation as a means of subsidizing living expenses. However, if family allowances are stipulated in collective agreements, employment rules, etc., or are paid regularly or uniformly according to custom, they cannot be considered to be paid purely as welfare benefits and are equivalent to wages under the Labor Standards Act. There is a lot of controversy as to whether family allowances are included in ordinary wages, average wages, or not wages. The Supreme Court believes that family allowances paid on a fixed, regular, and uniform basis to all employees regardless of the number of family members are included in ‘ordinary wages,’ which are the basis for calculating various allowances, and that family allowances paid uniformly to those who have grounds for payment in collective agreements or employment rules and meet certain requirements should be included in ‘average wages,’ which are the basis for calculating severance pay. Judgment is being made. However, the Ministry of Employment and Labor adheres to the guideline that family allowances paid uniformly to all workers, including single workers, are included in the average wage, but family allowances paid based on the number of family members are not included in wages. ▶Although benefits in the nature of welfare benefits such as food expenses (including family allowances) are specified as wage items in the collective agreement and are paid regularly and uniformly at least once a month and are included in the calculation of ordinary wages, they are classified as allowances that indirectly support the worker's living and are not included in the wages for applying the minimum wage (Wages 32240-381, January 12, 1989) ▶ Paragraph 3 of Article 6 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act prohibits employers from discriminating against men because they are women when paying money or lending money to support workers' livelihoods in addition to wages. However, in the case of your company, the eligibility for family allowance payment is based on employees with dependents, and Article 18, Paragraph 4 of the same regulations stipulates that if there are two or more employees who support the same dependents, the family allowance is paid to only one of them, so paying family allowance to only one of the married employees, regardless of gender, cannot be said to be a violation of the law (Yeojeong 68247-243, 2000.4.18).