More Holidays, Less Bonuses

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy released a report on September 1 showing the number of companies that will grant more than 5 days of holiday for this coming Chusok Holiday is up 6.4 percent compared to the same time last year. The research was conducted on 15,555 companies that accounted for 22 industrial complexes around the nation.

The number of businesses that take more than five days off for Chusok stood at 9.7 percent before this year, but has swelled to 62.5 percent in 2003. During Chusok last year, 57.5 percent of businesses took three days off from work. This year, however, 59.7 percent of all businesses are scheduled to take off five days during the holiday season.

Companies that will take less than three days off during Chusok accounted for 30 percent and 7.5 percent and 2.8 percent of the total number of companies will take four and over six days off, respectively.

With the increased holidays, though, only 72.6 percent of companies will be providing special bonuses to their employees, down 6.4 percent from 79 percent last year. The number of companies not providing employees with special holiday bonuses has increased from 21 percent last year to 27.3 percent this year, due to effects from the economic downturn.

Yet a total of 35.5 percent of companies will provide some 100 to 199 percent bonuses based on the fixed salaries of their employees.

About 66 percent of all workers are expected to head back to their hometowns for Chusok, a slight increase from 60.3 percent last year.

The increased number of days off during Chusok can be attributed to the fact that most companies will not be operational on the Saturday during the holiday season.

Eun-Woo Lee libra@donga.com