Koreans work 47.9 hours per week

Labor experts insisted that a weekly five-day work system has to be introduced along with a no pay policy for Saturdays and Sundays, so it is expected to trigger a controversy. Dr. Kim So-Young of the Korea Labor Institute said in his report, which was released on July 30th, that countries with long work hours like Korea, require reduction of legal work hours as well as comprehensive improvement in the overtime and holiday system.

As a detailed approach, he suggested that Saturdays and Sundays should be designated as no-pay holidays to establish a principle of a no work, no pay system. He also said that an adjustment in the overtime limit from the current 12 hours per week, has to be replaced with holiday, remove monthly leave with an introduction of a weekly five-day work system, shift the monthly physiological leave to a no-pay holiday and expand the flexible work-hour system.

Last year, Koreans worked 2,497 hours annually, or 47.9 hours per week. Those were the longest work hours since 1991. That is 600-900 hours longer than advanced countries in Europe, and 500-600 hours longer than Japan and the United States. And it is even longer than Korea`s major Asian competitors like Taiwan and Singapore.

Also, workers use 40% of their holidays, which was 8.8 days per year. The overtime by workers in manufacturing industries was 14.5% of their entire work hours or 352 hours a year.