.svg)
In the case of so-called contract workers whose entire wage or a significant portion is paid in the form of performance-based pay, there is a high possibility that workers' livelihoods will be threatened due to wage reductions caused by reasons beyond their control, such as delays in raw material supply or lack of work. To address this, Article 46 of the Labor Standards Act stipulates that for workers employed under contract systems or similar systems, a certain amount of wages must be guaranteed based on working hours, thereby providing regulations on wage guarantees for contract workers. 'Contract or similar systems' refers to methods where the entire or part of the wages are determined based on the results of work, such as production volume, rather than fixed pay according to working hours. This is different from the concept of contract under the Civil Act, and to receive protection under Article 46 of the Labor Standards Act, the worker's status as a 'worker' subject to the Labor Standards Act must first be recognized. In other words, there must be a prerequisite of an employment-dependent relationship, such as receiving the employer's command and supervision regarding working hours or methods of performing tasks, being subject to service rules, and having personal dependency on the employer. This regulation does not apply to contracts under the Civil Act. However, regarding 'a certain amount of wages according to working hours,' the Labor Standards Act does not provide specific standards, and only the Minimum Wage Act presents criteria for calculating the minimum wage amount for contract workers. Article 5 of the Minimum Wage Act allows the minimum wage amount to be set separately when wages are typically determined in contract systems or similar forms, and Article 4 of the Enforcement Decree of the same Act stipulates that in such cases, the minimum wage amount should be set based on a certain unit of the worker's production output or achievements.
However, to date, no separate minimum wage amount has been set for contract workers, so it should be interpreted that the general minimum wage applies in principle to contract workers as well.
In this regard, Article 5 of the Enforcement Decree of the Minimum Wage Act provides that for wage payment systems based on production output or contract systems, the total wage amount for the wage calculation period (or closing period if there is a wage closing date) shall be divided by the total working hours during that wage calculation period to determine the hourly wage. In cases where fixed pay by day, week, or month and wages set by contract system are included together in the wages, those portions shall be converted separately and added together to calculate the hourly wage.