It is gloomy news that the amount of wages unpaid to workers surged to its highest level in five years. Based on complaints filed to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the sum of overdue wages stood at about 1.31 trillion won ($1.2 billion) at the end of last year, the largest since 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis that jolted the local economy.

The number of employees who were unpaid for their work totaled 293,000, translating into some 4.5 million won per person in back pay.

The amount of overdue wages increased more rapidly in the areas of construction, restaurants and accommodation, which have been struggling with slumping domestic spending. What is particularly worrisome is that nearly 70 percent of back pay is concentrated in smaller, lower-paid workplaces with fewer than 30 employees. This heightens the possibility that low-income workers will suffer from more difficulties in their livelihoods and fail to service or repay their loans.

As in previous years, government supervisors are tightening their clampdown on workplaces with overdue wages in the weeks leading to Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 19 this year. Surely, efforts should be strengthened to ensure all workers receive their back pay so that they can spend the upcoming holiday with their families in a festive mood.

Previous records have shown that government intervention settled about 6 of 10 cases of overdue wages. The rest went through a long period of civil lawsuits.

It is ideal that the Ministry of Employment and Labor is joining hands with other welfare and legal services institutions to provide unpaid workers with a more substantial assistance package, including support for their livelihood.

In handling workplaces with overdue wages, a two-pronged approach must be taken. Financial support may be given to those in temporary managerial difficulties to help them settle overdue pay. But employers who have habitually delayed wage payments for no clear reason should be subject to sterner punishment.

It seems that the government and the main political parties have largely the same views on the need to increase fines on employers who deliberately delay wage payments and to impose higher interest rates on overdue pay. If so, they should move to enact a law to that effect as soon as possible.

The steep increase in overdue wages recalls the gloomy fact that Korea is not a country where labor is rewarded at a due and proper level, compared to other advanced nations. A recent local study showed that the ratio of wage earnings to gross national income remained at 43.5 percent in Korea in 2012, ranking 24th among the 32 surveyed members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Korea also placed second-highest in the proportion of low-income workers who earned less than two-thirds of the median wage.

It needs to be recalled that efforts to settle overdue wages should be made in the context of enhancing the value of labor in our society.