A talk between representatives of workers and management to set the mandatory minimum wage broke down on Friday due to an unbridgeable price gap, dimming prospects of reaching an early agreement.

The Minimum Wage Council, in which representatives of the government, labor and corporate management jointly set the wage level, managed to hold a last-ditch meeting on Thursday to determine the new minimum wage for 2012, which is used to gauge the lowest possible pay a local worker is lawfully entitled to receive.

The meeting, held one day after the Wednesday deadline to reach an agreement, however, failed to come up with a result as some labor and management representatives walked out of the last-minute talk due to their unbridgeable differences over wage levels.

The council said five labor representatives and all nine management-side delegates left the meeting and vowed to resign from the council membership altogether, refusing to vote on the minimum wage.

The breakdown of the annual negotiation came after corporate representatives rejected labor peers' demand for a sharp increase in the wage level.

Labor-side delegates wanted an 460 won ($0.43) increase, or about a 10 percent gain, from 2011's minimum wage set at 4,320 won while corporate counterparts are willing to condone a hike of only 135 won or 3.1 percent.

The labor side initially demanded a 23.1 percent increase with the corporate side pushing for a freeze but both parties had somewhat narrowed their differences before the meeting ended in failure on Friday.

The government, labor groups and the corporate sector each dispatch nine representatives to negotiate the wage level annually, which is determined in consideration of subsistence costs, labor productivity and income distribution.

The talk breakdown is widely expected to put a roadblock in the council's efforts to reach an agreement on the wage level in the near future.

"Since council members were appointed by the government, their decisions to resign do not automatically lead to them stepping down," a council official said. "The council will seek ways for the members to restart the talk." (Yonhap News)