NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

The Minimum Wage Commission convened its 5th meeting on Tuesday and is discussing the minimum wage for next year. Earlier the labor side demanded a 16.4 percent hike in the hourly wage that would raise the current 8,590 won to ten-thousand won. The management side rather proposed a 2.1 percent slash from this year for an hourly wage of 8,410 won. The commission will work with the two sides suggestions by narrowing the discrepancy but it's unclear whether an agreement can be reached.
The Bank of Korea announced Tuesday South Korea posted a current account surplus of 2.29 billion dollars in the month of May. This comes a month after the country recorded its first current account deficit in a year in April amid the coronavirus pandemic. A BOK official said that although the surplus amount is about half the level compared to the same period last year, Korea has successfully shifted to the black in May thanks to the easing of global lock-down measures.
Samsung Electronics on Tuesday unveiled a tentative tally for its second quarter operating profit of 8.1 trillion won. The figure is up 25% from 6.4 trillion in the previous quarter and up 22.7 percent from a year ago. The tech giant said overall sales are down from last year due to the pandemic but attributed the "earnings surprise," which is higher than market expectations, to brisk performance in semiconductors resulting from a strong demand.