Korea is moving to introduce what would function as a higher minimum wage floor for many foreign workers, by writing “reasonable” wage requirements for migrants directly into visa and stay conditions. Responding to inquiries from The Korea Times about this new immigration policy, revealed earlier this month, the Ministry of Justice said the goal is to protect the wage levels of Koreans by pushing up wage levels for foreign workers in certain visa categories. “The purpose of setting wage requirements for foreign workers, as in countries such as the United States and Britain, is to prevent declines in Korean workers’ wages and guard against violations of their working conditions,” a ministry official said in a recent statement. Under the 2030 Immigration Policy Future Strategy, the ministry plans to embed these wage thresholds in immigration rules, so that employers will have to meet or exceed them if they want to hire or keep foreign workers on visas such as E-7-1 or E-7-3. This comes after President Lee Jae Myung publicly questioned whether a growth model built on low‑paid mi