The Ministry of Employment and Labor said Tuesday that it would immediately levy fines of up to 20 million won ($18,000) on employers who violated the minimum wage law starting as early as next year.

Currently, those that paid workers less than the legal minimum wage are initially issued a warning before they are subject to sanctions, including fines.

But the Cabinet on Tuesday approved the ministry’s plan to impose the disciplinary fine on the rule-violators directly, without any prior warning or notice.

Further, after levying the fine, the ministry could consider filing a complaint against the violators with investigative agencies for criminal punishment. Habitual violators could face imprisonment for up to three years.

The nation’s minimum salary for next year has been set at 5,580 won per working hour, up 7.1 percent from 5,210 won a year earlier. It was 4,860 won in 2013.

Civic groups have found that more than 80 percent of students with part-time jobs were misinformed about the minimum wage. “They were found to have believed that they could be paid less than minimum wage during their apprenticeship,” a YMCA spokesman said.

But the law stipulates that the minimum wage is also applicable to apprentices when the contract period is less than a year.

Some companies were found to have paid migrant workers less than the minimum wage.

The Employment-Labor Ministry revealed that among the 1,728 firms that hire migrant workers, the law was violated by 4.2 percent in 2012, 6.8 percent in 2013 and 4.4 percent in the first half of 2014.

According to Statistics Korea, 7 out of every 10 foreign workers in Korea were paid less than 2 million won a month last year.

About 525,000 foreign workers were paid less than 2 million won in 2013. 

They accounted for 71.4 percent of the 735,000 salaried non-Korean employees on all visas.

The monthly salary for 42,000 workers -- more than 5 percent of all migrant workers -- was below 1 million won.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)