Asian migrant workers in Korea were found to receive much higher wages than they had been paid in their native countries, a poll showed this week.

According to the survey of 1,058 foreign laborers from 10 Asian countries, their average monthly earnings, including overtime pay and other extra bonuses, were 1.62 million won ($1,430). This was 6.4 times the average wage of 250,000 won ($222.4) they had received in their home countries.

Korea’s legal minimum wage (1.09 million won) is 4.4 times the average wage the workers had received in their home countries. Bangladesh showed the biggest gap with the Korean minimum 7.6 times higher than the average income its workers had received in their home country.

By Choi In-jeong  (injeongchoi@heraldcorp.com)