벼랑 끝에 선 골목상권, ‘생존권’을 외치는 자영업자들의 절규 > K-wave Trends

The core of this protest is the increased management burden on small business owners due to changes in the labor environment. They argue that the "Basic Law for Working People" currently under discussion in the National Assembly, along with attempts to expand the Labor Standards Act to workplaces with fewer than five employees, are tantamount to a death sentence for micro-businesses. The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise Owners estimated that if these bills are introduced, it would result in additional costs of over 5 million won per employee annually, criticizing the measures as "desk-bound administration" that ignores reality. Cries erupted at the scene, asking how forcing such cost burdens on small businesses—which are barely surviving through family labor without days off—is any different from forcing them to shut down.

Demands for fundamental improvements to the minimum wage system are also a major pillar of this protest. Small business owners point out that the current uniform method of calculating the minimum wage fails to reflect the characteristics of different industries, regions, and business sizes. They expressed strong opposition to the recently discussed minimum wage proposal for special employment workers, warning that wage hikes that do not consider the ability to pay will only have the counterproductive effect of reducing employment. They strongly urged for the modernization of labor regulations that have been entrenched for over 70 years, such as differential application for foreign workers and the abolition of weekly holiday allowances.

At the protest site, the relative deprivation felt by small business owners regarding strikes by large corporate unions and their excessive demands for performance bonuses was laid bare. Song Chi-young, Chairman of the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise Owners, pointed out that small business owners are shedding tears of blood while watching the struggles of well-fed large corporate unions, noting that our society's labor value is biased solely toward large corporations. He argued that the labor of self-employed individuals, who guard their shops themselves because they cannot even afford to pay part-time workers, is not receiving fair recognition. This conflict is a bitter indicator that the polarization of the labor market has moved beyond large versus small companies to now include conflict between the self-employed and workers.

The six demands presented by the small business owners represent the multifaceted crisis they face. Beyond blocking the expansion of the Labor Standards Act, they demanded the legalization of the right to organize and bargain for small business owners and the establishment of a special presidential committee for small businesses. They also appealed for the withdrawal of plans to allow early morning deliveries by large supermarkets to give local commercial districts room to breathe, and requested the introduction of a minimum income guarantee system for small business owners to provide a basic social safety net. These are not mere requests for subsidies, but desperate demands for survival and the institutional mechanisms needed to restore a collapsing self-employed ecosystem.

During this large-scale rally, Chairman Song Chi-young and other key leaders even shaved their heads to demonstrate their resolute determination. This symbolically shows that small business owners have reached a dead end with nowhere left to retreat. Merchants from across the country, including Gangwon State, warned that if the government and political circles ignore their voices again, they will launch an even larger, nationwide general uprising. How the political sphere accepts these legitimate voices of the people and reflects them in policy will likely be a critical turning point for the future of the people's livelihood economy.