Some eight-thousand owners of small businesses and self-employed people held a massive rally in downtown Seoul on Wednesday to demand changes to the government-led minimum wage hike.

Rally participants expressed anger over the minimum wage for next year being raised more than ten percent when this year’s minimum wage has already been marked up 16-point-four percent.

The participants demanded differential wage hikes for businesses that have less than five employees and the establishment of a special presidential committee tasked with devising ways to boost small firms’competitiveness.

Under the Moon Jae-in administration, the government has been accelerating increases in the statutory minimum wage to accomplish the president's pledge to raise it to 10-thousand won an hour by 2020.