The government has estimated that the amount of unpaid wages, which had posted a new high last year, surged more than 40 percent in the first quarter on-year. 

According to the labor ministry on Thursday, the amount of back wages in the first three months of this year reached nearly 572 billion won, or some 416 million U.S. dollars and up 40-point-three percent from the same period last year. 

If such a trend continues, the amount of unpaid wages is likely to top one trillion won in the first half of the year. 

A ministry official said such figures piled up mainly because of the overall economic recession and mostly due to the slump in construction industries.