열정페이 (yeoljeong pei)

What it means

1. 1.

   Being paid in experience: the internship, the fashion placement or the studio job that offers exposure and enthusiasm in place of wages.

Literally: Passion pay.

Examples with translations

• 그 회사 열정페이로 유명해.

  That company is notorious for paying in exposure.

• 열정페이는 이제 불법이야.

  Unpaid 'passion' work is illegal now.

Where it comes from

열정 ('passion') plus English 'pay'. Coined around 2014 in a public argument about unpaid internships in fashion and the arts, and now used in labour-law reporting.

First attested: around 2014

Other forms

Romanised as:

yeoljeong pei