Just over a year ago, Kim Young-gil’s wife gave birth to the couple’s first child, leading him to decide that after years of operating a room salon and working in bars, he needed to find a steadier way of earning a living.

At age 34, he wrote his first resume and acquired a license to work as a taxi driver. He now drives for 12 hours a day ferrying passengers all over the Seoul area. His new career as a cabbie has brought with it a range of challenges, but little of the stability or respectability Kim had hoped for.

“I want to quit about 12 times a day,” Kim said while smoking a cigarette and nursing coffee before starting an overnight shift.

Residents of and visitors to Korea appreciate the low cost of taxis but their comfort comes at a price to the drivers.

Taxi drivers generally earn about 1.5 million won ($1,350) a month while working 12-hour shifts five days a week. For each day a driver works, he or she must pay the taxi company around 110,000 won to cover the cost of using the vehicle. Their earnings come from whatever money is left over after those deductions. While driver income has stagnated, the costs of fuel and the basic costs of living, such as housing and food, have risen significantly in recent years.

To make ends meet, many drivers break the rules by taking extra passengers going in the same direction and charging fares negotiated with customers instead of off the meter. Though such activities are illegal, many drivers feel circumstances leave them little choice. Kim is relatively young and energetic and says he earns about 3 million won a month when his illicit earnings are factored in.

The base fare for taxis in Seoul has remained at its current level of 2,800 won since 2009. Compared to other major cities, that is relatively low (the base fare in Tokyo is 710 yen, or about $9).

In June, more than 200,000 taxi drivers held a protest at Seoul City Hall square asking the government to raise the basic fare and subsidize their gas purchases. Drivers came from all over the country and obstructed Seoul traffic in an attempt to get their message across.

On that day, the drivers’ sheer numbers were a source of strength, but usually they are a burden. One of the biggest problems for cabbies is that there are simply too many of them and that abundance makes it harder for drivers to do enough business.

The Korean Taxi Workers’ Union says there are 250,000 licensed taxi drivers in the country of 50 million people. By contrast, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010 there were 373,000 taxi drivers and chauffeurs in a country of more than 300 million people.

Like many developments in Korea, the oversupply of taxis can be traced to the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The organizers wanted to provide convenient transportation for foreign visitors as part of its plan to make a good impression during Korea’s global coming-out party, so restrictions on acquiring taxi licenses were relaxed. Many jumped at the new opportunity, thinking a job driving a taxi would pay well and be less physically demanding than labor or construction work.

“Everyone thought that if we worked hard we’d make more money, while bus drivers were locked into a salary system. Bus drivers used to envy us, but nowadays, it’s the other way around,” said Lee Tae-hyung, 55, who is now in his 30th year of driving a cab in Seoul.

Lee says his job has always been tough, but has gotten particularly difficult in the past few years. The increase in private driving services and expansions in public transit continue to make things even harder for taxi drivers. “It’s very hard to be comfortable on the wages we earn. It’s also tough on our families. We’re not home a lot, and when we are home, we’re tired.”

The situation reflects a general shift in the labor market ― in the late 1980s, Korea was opening up and beginning to liberalize its economy. This created new opportunities but also further exposed workers to the whims of the market. Some workers thought that leaving the public payroll would allow them to capitalize on their entrepreneurial instincts and earn more. Nowadays, with fewer permanent jobs and an unstable economy, many long for the security of state-sponsored jobs such as those held by bus drivers.

Ki Woo-seok, planning director of the Korean Taxi Workers’ Union, says the demands of the job cause physical ailments among drivers, and their companies don’t do much to help them when health problems set in.

“There are no taxi drivers that doesn’t have some kind of physical problem. And if they get sick or need treatment, they aren’t provided with insurance,” Ki said.

As a solution, the unions that represent taxis would like to have them included in the public transit system that covers workers on subways, buses and trains. This would entitle taxi drivers to the higher salaries and health benefits enjoyed by the workers in those areas.

“Taxi drivers contribute to public transportation in the same way, and that contribution should be recognized,” Ki said in an interview at the union headquarters in a working class area in eastern Seoul.

A lack of recognition and low public profile are sentiments echoed by many taxi drivers. They experience stress from constantly encountering people they don’t know and who often mistreat them. They regularly have to deal with drunks and other customers that refuse to pay their fare or treat the drivers disrespectfully.

“People think that taxi drivers are the lowest people, that they can say anything to us. If we made a decent income we would just probably put up with it, but we don’t, so there are lots of fights,” Kim said.

The responsibility of maintaining a household will keep Kim and his colleagues on the road for the time being. His coffee half empty, he looks to his dented cab as it idles across the street and says, “It’s stressful, but I just have to keep driving.” (Yonhap News)