“Unused leave gets paid out” is half true. Turning into money takes one condition, and how much it is turns on ordinary wage rather than salary. The number you divide by is 209 — which appears in no statute at all.
1. When it becomes money. Leave lapses if not taken within a year (art. 60(7)). Pay survives only under the proviso — “where the worker was unable to use it for reasons attributable to the employer”. Complete the written procedure in article 61 and the answer is zero.
2. How much. One day of ordinary wage × days unused, where a day is monthly ordinary wage ÷ 209 × 8 hours. At KRW 3,000,000 that is KRW 114,833.
3. The common error. Entering gross pay. Someone on KRW 3.5m gross whose ordinary wage is KRW 3.0m and who uses the gross figure overstates a day by 16.7% (our own calculation).
Leaving it unused does not automatically make it money
Read the order of the sentence and it inverts the usual assumption. Article 60(7) begins with the rule — “leave shall lapse if not exercised within one year” — and only then adds “provided that this shall not apply where the worker was unable to use it for reasons attributable to the employer”. The default is that it disappears; payment is the exception.
The procedure that closes off that exception is the leave promotion in article 61: the employer must give written notice within 10 days of the point six months before lapse, and if the worker does not respond within 10 days, the employer must fix the dates and notify in writing by two months before lapse. Complete all of it and unused leave lapses with nothing payable. The steps and deadlines are set out with the rule text in the annual leave explainer.
So there are two things to check. 1. Did a written notice arrive that year? Verbal word or a general announcement is not what the article requires. 2. Was the first notice given “to each worker individually”, as the text says? Miss either and it stays “attributable to the employer” — and it is payable.
Ordinary wage, not salary
The unit price is ordinary wage. Article 6 of the Enforcement Decree defines it as “wages agreed to be paid regularly and uniformly for contracted or total work”. Three words carry the test — regularly, uniformly, agreed to be paid.
Items that rise and fall with results, like performance pay, are in principle outside it because they are not agreed in advance. But whether a given allowance counts turns on how it is actually paid, not what it is called, and that varies with employment rules and practice. This article will not label individual items in or out — that judgement needs your payslip.
The size of the difference is easier to see as a number. Take someone on KRW 3.5m gross of which KRW 3.0m is ordinary wage.
| What was entered | Hourly | One day | 10 days unused |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay, KRW 3.5m (wrong) | 16,746 | 133,971 | 1,339,713 |
| Ordinary wage, KRW 3.0m | 14,354 | 114,833 | 1,148,325 |
| Difference | — | +19,139 | +191,388 (16.7%) |
※ The 3.5m and 3.0m are our own illustration. How far gross and ordinary wage diverge differs from person to person — what to take from this table is the direction, not the amounts.
209 is not hours worked
Converting a monthly wage to an hourly one means dividing by monthly contracted hours, and in a 40-hour workplace that figure is 209. Built up:
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid hours per week | 40 contracted + 8 weekly holiday | 48 hours |
| Weeks per year | 365 ÷ 7 | 52.142857 |
| Monthly average | 48 × 52.142857 ÷ 12 | 208.571 hours |
| Rounded | — | 209 hours |
The eight hours of weekly holiday inside it are the point. Of the 209, 173.81 hours are actually worked and 34.76 are paid weekly holiday (our calculation). So 209 does not mean “209 hours of work a month” but “209 hours treated as paid”.
Anywhere off a 40-hour week the number changes. On a 35-hour week it is (35 + 7) × 52.142857 ÷ 12 = 182.5 hours (our calculation). Which is why the annual leave calculator leaves 209 as an editable field rather than hard-coding it.
Settled in service, settled on leaving
The two are not the same.
| Situation | When it is settled | What is covered |
|---|---|---|
| While employed | after the leave lapses — usually the first payroll of the following year | days that lapsed unused that year (where no promotion procedure ran) |
| On leaving | within 14 days of the last day (Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act, art. 9) | all days not yet taken — even before the lapse date arrives |
The leaving settlement is the wider one. While employed, the “lapses within one year” clock is running; once you leave, the chance to take the leave is gone, so what remains becomes payable. It is settled alongside severance, so the severance calculator gives the fuller picture.
One case runs differently: leaving after exactly one year, where the 15 days never arise at all. That is covered separately in the one-year resignation article.
If you were not paid
Unused-leave pay is wages, so the three-year limitation on wage claims applies (art. 49). If fewer than three years have passed since your last day, you can still claim. Where an employer will not pay, a complaint goes to your regional labor office, and advice is available from the labor helpline (1350).
Having three documents ready makes the conversation much shorter — 1. the employment contract (start date and contracted hours), 2. a recent payslip (the ordinary wage items), 3. your leave usage record. With those three, everything above can be reproduced.
Questions that remain
Can I just skip the leave and ask for the money?
There is no such right in the text. Article 60 says leave “shall be granted”, not “may be commuted to pay”. Payment is what happens when leave survives under the proviso to article 60(7) instead of lapsing — and running the promotion procedure closes even that. Taking the leave is the rule; pay is the clean-up when you could not.
Isn't dividing by 209 unfair when I only work 174 hours?
A bigger divisor does give a smaller hourly rate — dividing by 173.81 raises it 20.2% (our calculation). But the numerator, your monthly ordinary wage, already includes weekly holiday pay. Dividing a figure that contains the holiday by hours that exclude it counts the same holiday twice. Using 209 keeps numerator and denominator on the same footing.
Does a bonus count as ordinary wage?
This article will not assert either way. The Enforcement Decree's test is regular, uniform, agreed to be paid, and payments carrying the same label “bonus” are structured differently from employer to employer, so the answer differs. Take the payslip to the labor helpline (1350) and they will assess it item by item. How it is paid, not what it is called, is the test.
Does a 20-hour-a-week part-timer get leave pay?
Part-time workers are understood to receive leave in proportion to contracted hours. But we could not read the appended table in the Labor Standards Act that carries the proportional formula, so this article does not set the formula out. Check your own contracted hours with 1350 or with payroll. For the separate 15-hour line where weekly holiday pay and social insurance begin, see the part-time pay calculator.
My employer says “we don't do leave payouts here”.
Half right. Getting everyone to use their leave does prevent any payout, and so does completing the article 61 procedure. But “this company does not pay it” is not a rule that can exist — while the proviso to article 60(7) is in the statute, leave the worker could not use because of the employer remains payable. Start by checking whether a written notice arrived that year. If none did, that is the answer.
Sources
- Labor Standards Act, article 60(7) — “shall lapse if not exercised within one year, provided that this shall not apply where the worker was unable to use it for reasons attributable to the employer”. That proviso is the basis for any payment. Read from two separate sources and matched.
- Labor Standards Act, article 61 — the promotion procedure (written notice within 10 days of six months before lapse → worker replies within 10 days → employer fixes dates in writing by two months before lapse). The text states expressly that a complying employer has no obligation to compensate.
- Enforcement Decree of the Labor Standards Act, article 6 — the definition of ordinary wage.
- Labor Standards Act, article 49 — three-year limitation on wage claims. Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act, article 9 — payment within 14 days of the last day.
- 209 hours appears in no statute. It is (40 + 8) × 365 ÷ 7 ÷ 12 = 208.571 rounded. The 173.81 / 34.76 split, the 182.5 for a 35-hour week, and every amount in the tables are our own calculation.
Where to check further
- What your ordinary wage actually is. This article stops at the definition and the formula — which items count needs your payslip and employment rules together, and the labor helpline (1350) will assess them item by item.
- The proportional formula for part-time workers. Said to sit in an appended table to the Act, but we could not read it and have not written the formula down — check your own contracted hours with 1350.
- Your workplace's monthly contracted hours. 209 is the 40-hour-week figure — read the contracted hours in your employment contract and recalculate if they differ.
- Whether a promotion notice arrived that year. This is what decides between a payout and nothing — check your email and the company intranet. If nothing came, that absence is itself the evidence.
Written as at August 2026. The statutory text and definitions were read from the source, and the composition of the 209 hours and every amount in the tables are our own calculation. Whether particular allowances count as ordinary wage, and the proportional formula for part-time workers, could not be verified and are not asserted. Real settlements turn on employment rules and payment practice, so confirm with payroll. For your own figures use the annual leave calculator; the statute as a whole is in the annual leave explainer. This is general information, not legal advice.
