A customer skims through a book near a shelf where books on the job market for first-time workers are placed at a bookstore in Seoul, June 23. Yonhap

One out of four salaried workers aged between 20 and 24 in Korea receive less than minimum wage, data showed, Friday.

The data compiled by the Minimum Wage Commission, a three-way party of workers, management and the government, comes as Korea increasingly has been advocating for labor rights and the commission hiked next year's minimum wage above the 10,000 won ($7.21) threshold.

The data obtained and released by Rep. Koh Dong-jin of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) showed 24.1 percent of Korean workers in the age group were paid below the minimum wage of 9,160 won per hour in 2022.

The 2022 rate ticked up from 16.1 percent of workers in their 20s in 2012, when the minimum wage was 4,580 won per hour.

"The case shows the irony of a drastic hike in the minimum wage resulting in worsened wage payment circumstances," Koh said, noting the minimum wage surged 100 percent in the 2012-22 period.

Also a member of the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs, and Startups Committee, the legislator pointed out that such irony was witnessed before the 2012-22 period.

For instance, 27.6 percent of Korean workers aged between 20 and 24 received less than minimum wage in 2018 when it increased by 16.4 percent.

The rate of those workers then rose to 30.5 percent in 2019, when the minimum wage rose 10.9 percent.

The minimum wage for 2025 was set at 10,030 won, marking a 1.7 percent increase from 9,860 won in 2024.

The pace of increase marks the smallest since the 1.5 percent rise in 2021.

In a broad perspective, however, it builds on drastic hikes of 16.4 percent in 2018 and 10.9 percent in 2019, followed by 2.87 percent in 2020, 1.5 percent in 2021, 5.05 percent in 2022 and 5 percent in 2023.

The lawmaker called on the government to "make sure no young workers remain in blind spots where they are exploited in terms of wage."