Smaller Bonuses, Longer Holidays

According to a survey, workers will have smaller bonuses and longer Chuseok holidays this year, compared to last year.

The Korea Employers Federation (KEF) found in its survey of 226 companies with at least 100 workers that the bonuses for this year’s Chuseok holidays will average 80.2 percent (949,000 won), a 5.8 percent drop from last year.

Both large and small-and-medium-sized companies cut their bonuses to 93.5 percent (1.246 million won) and 75.0 percent (854,000 won) of base salary, respectively.

The KEF explained, “As more and more companies adopt a merit pay system, they have abolished bonuses or reduced their amount,” adding, “The sluggish domestic demand, which shrank their capacity to pay bonuses, played a part.”

Meanwhile, this year’s Chuseok holidays are 5.1 days on average, 0.6 day longer than last year’s. About 53.1 percent of the respondents have five-day holidays, while 25.8 percent have six days or more.

Experts say that that is because the official three-day holiday (September 24 to 26) comes immediately after the weekend and because companies have adopted the 40-hour, five-day workweek.

abc@donga.com