Unpaid wages owed to foreign workers in South Korea surged last year, according to government data.
Foreign workers were owed 154.8 billion won ($112 million) in unpaid wages in 2025, according to Ministry of Employment and Labor data submitted to Rep. Shin Jung-hoon of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee, on the 8th. The figure is 47 billion won higher than the 107.8 billion won recorded a year earlier, a 43.6% increase.
The number of affected workers also rose sharply. Some 30,684 foreign workers were affected in 2025, up 8,036 from 22,648 a year earlier, a 35.5% increase.
Over the same period, total unpaid wages including those owed to Korean workers rose about 3.0% to 2.0006 trillion won from 1.9425 trillion won. That means the increase for foreign workers far outpaced the overall rise.
By industry, the damage was concentrated in manufacturing and construction. Unpaid wages owed to foreign workers in those two sectors totaled 114.5 billion won in 2025, or 73.9% of the total. The 22,080 affected workers in those sectors accounted for 72.0% of the total.
By workplace size, small businesses with fewer than 30 employees accounted for the bulk of the cases. Unpaid wages at such workplaces came to 138.6 billion won in 2025, or 89.5% of the total. The 28,029 affected workers there made up 91.3% of the total.
The problem continued into the first half of this year, with 13,936 foreign workers owed a combined 75.4 billion won.
"While total unpaid wages rose 3%, unpaid wages for foreign workers soared 43.6%," Shin said. "This must not become a country where foreign workers have to accept the risk of having their wages withheld. The government must immediately deploy dedicated teams to regions, industries and workplaces where unpaid wages occur repeatedly. It must shift to a field-centered, one-stop remedy system."
