Neoliberalism In South Korea

The relationship between workers at MacDonald’s and managers is not too different in terms of the temporary employment status and low ages given due to labor flexibility. The broad spectrum of labor flexibility utilized by McDonald’s defines the unstable access to jobs as part-time positions. In terms of unionization efforts at McDonald’s, it has become apparent that the McDonald’s corporation exploits every level of laborer, manager, and administrator in South Korea: “Protestors inside the restaurant reportedly said that McDonald’s fills every restaurant position, even administrative ones, with temporary workers to cut costs.” In this working relationship, the hierarchical structure of McDonald’s worker and managerial relationships is equal …show more content…
Since the early 2000s, South Korea’s adaptation of a neoliberal agenda has opened the labor markets to transnational corporations from the United States. The South Korean government has adapted the neoliberal economic ideology of transnational corporations, which has reduced the regulatory polices that protect the worker. Labor flexibility has created a system of low wage labor that relies heavily on part-time contracts on an annual basis. Major transnational corporations, such as McDonald’s, epitomize the development of the South Korean economy in the neoliberal model, which has crated a predominantly part-time workforce without a living wage. In my won working experience, McDonald’s has offered low wages for all levels of the franchise, which exposes the massive levels of wage exploitation that the corporation wields in terms of preventing full-time status and higher wages. More so, the unionization of the retail industry also defines the increasing levels of economic inequality and unemployment that many young people must endured under the threat of labor flexibility. Since the 1990s, South Korea has actually become more undemocratic in the deregulation of the labor markets through the neoliberal ideology. Increasing unemployment, lack of high paying jobs, and long-term employment has now become the mainstay of the fast food industry. In these working conditions, the South Korean government is not really supporting globalization and democratization of the workforce, since they allow transnational corporations such massive leeway in controlling wages and job availability. In this manner, labor flexibility has failed to bring greater equality and employment opportunities in South Korean industry over the past 15 years due to neoliberal policies and deregulated labor