The following table summarizes the pros and cons of minimum wage. In 2018, the minimum wage committee decided to raise the minimum wage in 2018 by 16.4% from the previous year to 7,530 won ($6.65 USD) an hour. This is the largest increase (1060 won) since 2001 (16.8 percent). The effectiveness and feasibility of minimum wage increases are greatly debated topics. Both conservative newspapers and liberal pundits across South Korea were quick to denounce the new minimum wage measures. The "Chosun Ilbo" reported on the day after the 2018 minimum wage increase was announced that SMEs and small business owners were opposed to raising the minimum wage. They said, "The minimum wage increase is a measure that does not take into account the imminent reality of small and medium sized companies suffering from sluggish sales." The "Dong-A Ilbo" also criticized the government's minimum wage increase on the same day, reporting on the criticism of the Small Business Federation and the Korea Employers Federation. The "JoongAng Ilbo" reported on the support measures for small businesses and small businesses, which amount to four trillion won, and criticized it as "unpopular populism all over the world". In addition, the "Dong-A Ilbo" reported on companies that decided to move their factories overseas because of a minimum wage increase. Ju Jin-hyung, who has served as general affairs policy committee chairman of the Democratic Party, pointed out through a Facebook post that the promise of the "minimum wage 10,000 won" promise and ambiguity, and lack of standard and impression standards. Many scholars, however, welcomed and endorsed the minimum wage increase. Jeong Tae-in, an economist and chief of the Karl Polanyi Center for Socio-Economic Studies, wrote a column in the progressive journal "Kyunghyang Shinmun". He argued in the column that the minimum wage increase does not affect employment: first, college students and young people who work part-time will reduce labor hours if the minimum wage goes up. Second, if the self-employed are concerned about the minimum wage increase, it is likely that it is due to the pressures of a franchise headquarters. Third, he argues reducing business hours to eight hours a day would not reduce the sales of consumer goods by one-third, as some insist. If the minimum wage increase is the policy priority, shortening the operating hours will be a policy to compensate. The government only has to assure convenience stores, franchisees, and manufacturing subcontractors the right to organize 'Eul(을)'.