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This article explores minimum wages and living wages in the United States. This article describe the foundation of the living wage movement and its current presence, and will analyze its legal challenges. In particular, the primary reason for the local living wage movement is that the federal minimum wage has failed to provide workers with sufficient wages to support themselves and their families. Recent victories have provided a surge of energy and enthusiasm for those who support the rights of self-sufficiency for all workers. The challenge is to sustain that momentum and to substantially increase the numbers of workers who are entitled by law to earn living wages. Insufficient wages in Korea may be supplemented the notion of living wages.

This paper is a study of the legislation, case law and literature which is related to AGG(the General Equal Treatment Act), esp. in the area of labor law, in the Federal Republic of Germany. The aim of the AGG is to prevent and eliminate discrimination particularly in employment and occupation on the basis of racial or ethnic origin, age or sexual orientation. In this respect the prohibition of discrimination and concretizing or supporting rules of the General Equal Treatment Act have preventive function, on the one hand, and fulfil on the other hand repressive measure for eliminating existing and continually effecting discrimination. But in exceptional cases discrimination on the basis of features prescribed in § 1 AGG can be justified. Conditions of the exceptional cases mentioned in § 1 AGG are uniformly regulated in § 8 AGG. According to this regulation, unequal treatment doesn’t constitute discrimination, if the features concerned constitute essential and crucial occupational requirement owing to the nature of the duties and the purpose and the requirements are legitimate and adequate. If a different treatment under § 8 para. 1 AGG is justified, it is not illegal, i.e. not against the prohibition of discrimination under § 7 para. 1 AGG in these cases and thus is not entitled to compensation for damages. The §§ 8 to 10 AGG lay down rules for permissible discrimination on the ground mentioned in § 1 AGG in the area of professional and working life. In § 8 AGG a general clause regulates the permissible discrimination due to work requirements. In this study it is determined, under what conditions unequal treatment based on characteristics listed in § 1 AGG can be justified and how far the exception of non-discrimination reaches. It prevails neither in the case law nor in the literature, but there is consensus about cases in which discrimination can be justified. These particular cases require definition of permissible or impermissible grounds of justification. Previous judgments and the various opinions used in the literature are taken into consideration in order to clarify this issue.

Change discipline of organizational form of the labor union is to be able to make the change immediately organization form. Establishment and dissolution procedures of trade unions is very inconvenient. Rules of procedure for the change of organization form in the dimension of the guarantee of the right to organize on the Constitution, has an important meaning. Legislators can not make the law completely. Law must have a shortcoming. Such problems occur when the situation happens especially legislators are not going to be expected at all. Legislators could not expect to change that the industrial unions to the enterprise union. Because it had been prohibited. Now, however, there are multiple unions institutions are allowed. Situation changed. Then, defect of law can be occurred. If the law is not valid, it is necessary to solve these problems through a reasonable interpretation. The overcoming these problems through overall content and the purpose of legislation is analogical application. Recent controversy of organizational changes of union also must be solved by these analogical application. In the Constitution, the labor union makes no distinction between corporate labor union and industrial union. Both are equally protected. Industrial union is not in the lead. With that in mind, The current Labor Union Act Article 16 is a wrong regulation. In other words, it should be re-interpreted reasonably from analogical application. Traditional precedents deem that the subject of chainging organizational form of the union is limited to case with the eligibility as a labor unions. And the collective bargaining ability is an important element to the eligibility of such union. However, this interpretation is not appropriate. Such a decision is not valid as overly formal literal interpretation. Even if a small number of workers, they have clear intention that leave the industry union, trying to return to the labor union, so trying to actively exercise their rights, it would be wrong to stop this. In conclusion The concept of the labor union as the subject of change of organizational form has nothing to do with the presence or absence of the collective bargaining ability. A specific intention wishing to go to an independent collective bargaining that be organized to the extent to be expressed specifically in outside is sufficient.

The low quality of employment in the personal, retail and social service sectors revals a issue unnoticed by the labor law scholars and policy makers, That is the issue of the precarious employment or the precariousness of employment. The precariousness of employment does not just mean whether or not employees with a certain job can enjoy any protection from unfair dismissals in employment relations. Rather, it generally descibes the situation that today many employees have faced job insecurity, irregular jobs, low wage, poor working conditions, and jobs excluded from the protection of labor laws and social security laws. In other words, it is about the quality of employment in labor relations. The low quality jobs extensively have been spread in the majority of industry, and all employees can be confronted by it regardless of the type of employment in certain occupations. The situation requires us to consider whether to change the fundamental principle of labor laws or not. For example, whether the minimum wage law only sets up the lowest pay in employment relations, or the law has to assure employees decent wages enough for the good standard of living with dignity in labor society. The current laws of labor can’t effectively regulate the precarious or contingent work in a workplace. It’s not a superficial phenomenon but a fundamental defect in the existing laws. The labor laws have to be changed to set up the good labor standards in the service sectors creating more jobs then any industries today.

In a situation that is diversifying the form of dependency, whether the position as employee under the Labor Standard Law or not, there is big issue. It is important that they will be applied labor law or social security law. This is a review of approaches to the workers’ concept problems in korea. In Germany, similar worker is acknowledged due to the need for social protection and economic protection. But they is not applied Labor Law, but other laws. The Supreme Court ruling on the basis of typological way of human dependency (employment dependencies relations) lists its own individual test criteria, then maintains the attitude of identifying whether the actual employment relationship exists in each specific cases regardless of the type of contracts. The court has been applied the concept of employee from a view of labor law, because workers are not equivalent to a business. In these cases, must be respected by the contents what the parties had intended. However, we can not help but be suspicious the judgement and we hope that is not being done for purely economic reasons. In 2006, The supreme court judged in terms of ‘a considerable guidance and supervision’ as well as ‘Specific guidance and supervision’, in judging the concept of the worker. And the supreme court was regarded as a secondary element the indicators to do the business in their dominant position. If The supreme court is intended the employee’s concept of expansion due to economic protection, the court’s judgement in 2006 will be continued. In spite of that there are the judgements which is judged from the previous criteria-Specific guidance and supervision. The court’s judgement depend on that the court chosen what criteria. The court must judge a employee concept by the unified indicators, and court remains firmly of the view that is judge whether employee or not.

The main cause of poverty is the lack of income. Among income from various economic activities, income earned from working is the most important. The instability of working activity which results in reduction or cessation of income causes the exacerbation of poverty or makes it difficult to escape poverty. The Korean financial crisis of 1997 worsened job insecurity and generated many working poor. It went worse with the global financial crisis of 2008 which led to unstable employment, low pay, rising unemployment, and chronic unemployment and consequently, more working poor, regardless of regular employment or contingent employment. This study aims to identify the problem of working poor in terms of labor law, examine the challenges of the labor laws to combat poverty and seek alternatives. The first issued of labor law to solve working poverty is an overall application of Labor Standard Act to all of the work place. The second is to restrict of redundancy only to the case of ‘urgent business needs’ in order to prevent abuse of redundancy because redundancy without worker’s reason of imputation makes many social problems such as bankruptcy of working poor. In the third issue, it is suggested that the ‘equal pay for work of equal value’ principle be applied to the Labor Standard Law in order to improve working conditions of contingent employment as well as the ‘responsibility’ element be excluded and judged passively when measure the work of equal value.

Before the amendment of Act on Age Discrimination Prohibition in Employment and Aged Employment Promotion(AADPEAEP) in 2013. 5. 22., when an employer sets a retirement age, he/she just shall ‘endeavor’ to set it at 60 years of age or above. But the amended Act ‘compel’ employer to set retirement age at 60 years of age or above(Article 19). And the amended Act ‘force’ the employer and trade union formed by the majority of workers into the reorganization of wage system in workplace too. Mandatory retirement system is legal on the assumption that it secure workers' social rights and fundamental labor rights guaranteed by the Constitution and does not discriminate against employees based on age for effective management of the company, without a just reason. For promoting the employment of aged employees, the current Paid as Service Period System needs to be reorganized more reasonably, for example a Neutral Pay System against Age and Service Period or the Wage Peak System, with improving the retirement system. And the Phased Retirement System, the endeavor for looking to many ways of aged employment promotion could be investigated in the sense of labor flexibility. The Dismissal to Change Working Conditions(Änderungskündigung) would be the substitution of workers' consent when the rules of employment are to be modified unfavorably to workers, for the Alteration of Working Conditions without useless labor conflict. But the Dismissal to Change Working Conditions should be endowed with the reserved assent of aged employee and the social justness examination of the court.

I intend to introduce an additional payment system of the Japan. Labor Standards Act provides that an employer should pay an additional payment of more than twenty five percent of regular wage for extended work and night work and an additional payment of more than thirty five percent of regular wage for paid holiday work per week(only one day per week. hereinafter referred to paid holiday work) in Section 37(1). Simultaneously where an employer failed to pay the additional payment to an employee concerned, the Court should order the additional payment and could order liquidated damages less than or equal to the additional payment(LSA Section 114) with its discretion. Special features of the additional payment system are as follows: First, according to interpretation of the Labor Administration, a holiday work means only paid holiday work which is generally a Sunday work. So even where an employee does a paid holiday work, an employer does not need to pay an additional payment for extended work but only needs to pay an additional payment of more than thirty five percent of regular wage for the work. Second, where an employee does a night work(generally from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.), an employer should pay an additional payment for night work to an employee concerned. Furthermore, where the extended work gets to the night work, an employer should pay an additional payment both for extended work and for night work. Third, where an employee does an extended work in excess of eight hours in a day or forty hours in a week on holidays that are not paid holidays, an employer should pay the additional payment for extended work as well.

The part-time worker is worker have shorter working ours than ordinary worker for 1 week. There are regulations to protect the working conditions of part-time workers on the Labor Standards Act and the Act on fixed-term and part-time workers protection. Especially, Protection from the overtime work is very important because shorter working hours is an essential element for part-time workers. The Act requires the consent of the employee if the employer expects to overtime work for part-time workers. And the employer have to pay the sum for overtime wages. This new regulation is established for the decrease of part-time workers overtime. First of all, to be protected as part-time workers the ordinary workers are must be present in the workplace. And Working hours are a little shorter than ordinary workers. That does not matter how the working hours is short. And consent for overtime should be interpreted very strictly. The employer have to explain about the overtime work to part-time workers. Part-time worker should be able to freely choose the overtime work. Overtime wages paid for overtime of part-time workers is 150% of the normal wage. I think it is sufficient to restrict overtime work for part-time workers. Because financial burden is due to make the limiting overtime. Overtime work is divided extended work, and night work, holiday work on the Labor Standards Act. Therefore, if the reason is duplication wages shall be paid by adding redundancy.

For social workers in modern society, it is unavoidable to encounter commuting accidents. which have a close correlation with the work itself. To safeguard the interests of labors, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and major countries around the world bring the commuting accidents into the compensation system of work-related injury. In 1996, Chinese government issued the Trial Procedures for Industrial Injury Insurance for Enterprise Employees, in which commuting accidents were considered as industrial injuries for the first time. In China’s Regulations on Work Injury Insurance which was revised in 2010, the commuting accidents was defined as “having sustained injuries due to traffic accidents caused not primarily due to their own responsibilities or mass transit, passenger ferry or train accidents.” Thus, the premise to apply the new regulations appropriately is how to identify ‘commuting’. However, as what the Regulation on Industrial Insurance defines, commuting accidents are not supposed to be caused primarily due to the worker’s responsibilities. Obviously, this requirement violates the principle of no-fault compensation as well as the purpose of safeguarding the labors. Meanwhile, as the commuting accidents are restricted within traffic accidents or mass transit, the regulation, to some extent, is against the principle of equality without considering other circumstances of industrial injuries. This article firstly reviews the relative regulations formulated by ILO and its major countries and the evolution situation of China’s legislation in terms of identifying commuting accidents. Then it elaborates the jurisprudential evidence of the identification of commuting accidents. Afterwards, in accordance with the protection standards of international labor and China’s national conditions and the legal ideas to protect labor’s interests, the article brings forward the premise of identifying commuting accidents, which includes the reasonable time, path and purpose. The ending paragraphs present the limits of the current legal system and its future’s improvement for identifying commuting accidents so as to maximize the protection of labor’s interests and improve the legal system. In conclusion, this article suggests the problem and its amendment of the commuting accidents in China.

This papers explores fundamental rights of migrant workers in agriculture in respect of working hours and holidays. Employees to whom the eight hour workweek and weekend-off system do not apply, under special circumstances are exempt from regulations on working hours, recess and off-days(Article 63 of the LSA). Employees who are exempt are as follows; ① workers engaged in cultivation or reclamation of land, seeding, cultivation or collection of plants, or other agricultural and forestry work; ② workers engaged in breeding of animals, collection or catching of marine animals and plants, cultivation of marine products, or other cattle-breeding, sericulture and fishery business. But migrant workers who don't have the right to change the business under the work permit system suffer from conditions worse than Korean workers. The study concludes that neglecting this situation contravenes fundamental rights of the migrant workers concerning Labor Right of Article 32 of the Constitution. And this article suggest the ways to decrease unconstituionality like this.

Der Personalrat in Korea ist die Vertretung der Beamten, an der sich Beamte unterhalb Stufe 7 anschließen können.　Durch die Beteiligung der Personalvertretungen soll sichergestellt werden, dass die schutzwürdigen Interessen der Beamten berücksichtigt werden. Das Recht der Personalvertretung wird in dem Beamtenpersonalratsgesetz geregelt. Der Ursprung des Beamtenpersonalrates in Korea liegt im Versuch der tatsächlichen Gewährleistung der Koalitionsfreiheit für Beamte. Zwar §　33 Ⅱ Koreanische Verfassung garantiert die eingeschränkte Koakitionsfreiheit für Beamte, die einzelne Beamtengesetze verbaten aber die gewerkschaftlichen Betätigungen der Beamte. So hatten Beamte keine Rechte, Gerwerkschaften zu gründen oder sich diesen anzuschließen. Nach den langjährigen Debatten in den 1990er Jahren wurde zunächst das Beamtenpersonalratsgesetz am 1998. 2. 24(in Kraft treten am 1. 1. 1999) verabschiedet, das erst den Zusammenschluß für Beamte unter der Stufe 7 durch den Personalrat 　erlaubte. Da der Personalrat aber keine Gewerkschaft ist, so kam nun Bewegung in die Gesetzgebung zur Bildung der Beamtengewerkschaft. Durch die gesteigerte Forderung nach der Beamtengewerkschaft wurde endlich das Beamtengewerkschaftsgesetz am 1. 27. 2005. verabschiedet(in Kraft treten am 1. 28. 2006). Danach haben Beamte das Recht, sich in Gewerkschaften oder Berufsverbänden zusammenzuschließen. Die Koalitionsfreiheit gilt für Beamte allerdings nur eingeschränkt, da sie über kein Streikrecht verfügen können. Seit dem Inkrafttreten des Beamtengewerkschaftsgesetzes ist aber die Rolle des Beamtenpersonalrats unklar geworden, so er manchmal ohne eigene Funktion übrig bleiben soll. Um diese Rückstände des Personalrates zu überwinden, ist es nötig, dass er sich von der gegnerischen Rolle der Gewerkschaft differenzieren und　 dafür alle Kräfte auf zusammenwirkende Aufgaben in der Dienststelle konzentrieren. Dazu gehören die Aufgaben der Überwachung der Einhaltung von Arbeitnehmerrechten und Entgegennahme von Beschwerden aus den Reihen der Mitgliedschaft. Daneben sollen die Regelungen der Mitgliedschaftsbeschränkung Beamtenpersonalratsgesetz auf unterhalb 7 Stufe abgeschafft werden, da der Personalrat ein kooperatives und mitwirkendes Organ der Dienststelle ist.