Korea's unstaffed store count jumped 42.8% against a wage floor rising 3.4% a year

One clerk at the wage floor, annualised from the 2,236,300 won monthly figure the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise cites for 2027, is 26,835,600 won a year ^[5][9], and the Korea Rural Economic Institute puts average annual rent for a food service business at 21.9 million won in 2024 ^[6], so the person taking the orders costs roughly 22.5% more than the room they are taken in ^[5]. Spread over four employees, next year's raise on its own is more than 2.5 million won a head ^[4] once the employer's share of the four major insurance programs is counted, according to Song Chi-young ^[8]. The restaurant owner in Ilsan describes the mechanism without doing the arithmetic: order-taking and payment look like minor duties, but without table ordering the business has to keep one employee on them, and a kiosk keeps the door open during hours he cannot staff ^[10].

The wage path itself is unremarkable. From 8,720 won an hour in 2021 to 10,320 won now is 18.3% ^[7], about 3.42% a year compounded ^[6], and next year's 3.7% is in line with that pace ^[7]. The counted store base did not behave that way: 6,323 to 9,030 is 2,707 additional premises, 42.8% in twelve months ^[1]. A smooth input rarely produces a jump like that. The wage line sets how much pressure an owner is under while the device side sets when he acts, and the survey publishes no kiosk price and no lease term, so the payback period, which is the number the owner is actually running, cannot be computed from this material.

This is probably wrong, but the card panels look like the better measure of the level and the fire agency's five categories like the better measure of the rate. Samsung Card's roughly 12,000 sits 2,970 above the national count, about a third higher ^[2], and the two are not measuring the same object: one counts merchants on a card network, the other counts premises in five named trades while the source says convenience stores, bakeries, pet supply shops and stationery stores have also gone unmanned ^[12]. That one-directional gap between the two counts is what makes the comparison useful.

What a kiosk cannot reach is the rest of the cost line. Ingredients widened to 40.7% of operating costs from 36.3% ^[5], and the operating margin gave up 3.4 points, or 28.1% of what it was in 2020 ^[3], so automating orders and payments is how an owner survives a cost structure rather than how he repairs one. The test runs next year: if the count flattens while the floor climbs to 10,700 won, labour cost merely tracked this trend rather than caused it, and if it compounds again off 9,030, the price of the machine is the binding constraint.