South Korean actors are asking Netflix to begin paying residuals

South Korea gave Netflix its most popular show of all time — but the country’s actor’s union says the “Squid Game” streamer has yet to pay its members fairly, even as the company leans on local labor more and more for its successes.

Song Chang-gon, 51, president of the Korea Broadcasting Actors Union, told the Los Angeles Times that attempts to arrange a meeting with Netflix — to demand that members be compensated with the same residual model as American members of SAG-AFTRA — have gone unanswered for months.

“One of [Netflix’s] first priorities when entering the local market should be to establish some channel of communication with groups like us,” the country’s answer to Fran Drescher said.

“But there’s no answer at all.”

Residuals have recently been in the news as American actors and writers striking for fair compensation post their often insultingly meager checks, ranging from a single penny to a few dollars.

As opposed to the royalties paid in broadcasting, residuals must be paid in perpetuity to actors in the United States, based on how many times their films and shows are streamed.

The installments hardly amount to a living here at home, but in South Korea — where the cost of labor is already low — they aren’t paid to actors at all.

The employer-friendly setup appears to have enticed the entertainment juggernaut to put down roots — Netflix announced in April that it plans to invest $2.5 billion in the South Korean market alone, over the next four years.

Beyond the undisputed success of “Squid Game,” there are multiple other South Korea-made shows at the top of Netflix’ non-English language series charts. Over 30 new South Korean offerings will be brought to Netflix in 2023 alone.

In 2022, 60 percent of Netflix subscribers watched a Korean-language show or film, according to The New York Times.

South Korea first broke through on the international entertainment scene when the Netflix original series “Sweet Home” charted globally in 2020. The country has been on a roll ever since.

In recent years, the streamer has released shows like “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” “The Glory,” “Physical: 100,” and “Squid Game” to not only widespread acclaim, but also massive popularity.