consensus is reached. Alternative systems such as setting minimum wage in proportion to the average wage of workers are being suggested. 40. Current minimum wage (4,000 KRW per hour, 836,000 KRW per month) is far below the average monthly living cost per household members (2 person household: 2,223,000 KRW, 3 person household: 2,890,000 KRW, 4 person household: 3,500,000) and insufficient to diminish income gap and achieve the goal of income redistribution for a decent living of all workers as provided in Article 7 (a) (ii) of the Covenant. 5. Introducing Different Minimum Wages by Region (130) 41. NHRCK commented that the draft amendments to the Minimum Wage Act proposed on 18 November 2008 introducing different minimum wages by region, expanding reduced minimum wage, and deducing lodging expenses from minimum wage calculation should be reconsidered as they contradict the purpose of minimum wage. The differentiation of minimum wages by region can violate Article 7 (nondiscrimination) of the Covenant, undermine equality among workers in different regions, be irrelevant to a geographically small country like Korea, and cause concentration of labour force in areas with high minimum wage and create doughnut phenomenon in low minimum wage regions and hence aggravate disparity among regions. IV. Working Condition and Discrimination 2: Discrimination against Non-regular Workers 1. Limitations on Non-regular Workers Job Training (111-114) 42. According to the Statistics Korea’s Economic Active Population supplemental essay conducted in March of 2009, 8,411,000 of South Korea’s wage earners or 52.3% are non regular workers (See [Table 1] in the Annex). It was found that their monthly earning was 124,000 KRW; this clearly presented a large gap between non-regular and regular workers whom earn a monthly salary of about 253,000 KRW a month (see [Table 2] in the Annex). In addition, employment insurance, social insurance, retirement allowance, vacation, overtime pay benefit only applied to 10-30% of non-regular workers, which is very low compared to regular employed workers (See [Table 3] in the 12