Annual paid leave in Korea is not a perk the company hands out — it is statutory paid leave. Most people know only the headline: “one year of service, 15 days.” Open the statute and you find three separate sets of rules: how the days are counted, when unused days expire, and the procedure that lets a company avoid paying for them.
1. How many days do I have. 80% or more attendance over one year gives 15 days (Art. 60(1)); under one year, one day per full month worked (same art., (2)); from year three, one extra day every two years, capped at 25 (same art., (4)).
2. What gets missed. Five kinds of time off still count towards the 80% — without knowing that, people wrongly conclude that parental leave or an industrial accident wiped out their entitlement. And if the company follows the written procedure, unused days expire with no payment (Art. 61).
3. So what do I do. A written use-promotion notice from the company is the signal — after it, unused days are gone and unpaid. The timing is “the time the worker requests” by default (Art. 60(5)), so putting dates in early works in your favour.
How many days do I actually have
Article 60(1) An employer shall grant 15 days of paid leave to a worker who has attended work for not less than 80 percent of one year.
Article 60(2) An employer shall grant one day of paid leave for each month of perfect attendance to a worker whose continuous service is less than one year or who has attended less than 80 percent of one year.
Article 60(4) For a worker who has served continuously for three years or more, an employer shall add one day for every two years of continuous service exceeding the first year … In such cases the total shall not exceed 25 days.
| Your situation | Leave | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 1 year of service | 1 day per full month (up to 11) | Art. 60(2) |
| 1 year + attendance 80% or more | 15 days | Art. 60(1) |
| 1 year + attendance under 80% | 1 day per full month | Art. 60(2) |
| Year 3 | 15 + 1 = 16 days | Art. 60(4) |
| Years 5 / 7 / 9 | 17 / 18 / 19 days | |
| Year 21 and beyond | stops at 25 days |
Plug “one day every two years” in and the cap has a date. The added days equal the years of continuous service beyond the first, divided by two — year 3 is +1, year 5 is +2, and year 21 is +10, so 15 + 10 = 25 days (our own calculation). After that, no amount of service adds another day.
Because the statute says “three years or more of continuous service,” the addition starts in year three. Year two is still 15 days.
Does time off count as absence
This is where the real misunderstanding lives. The statute itself lists the periods that are “deemed” attendance.
Article 60(6) In applying paragraphs (1) and (2), any of the following periods shall be deemed attendance:
1. A period of leave due to injury or illness arising out of the performance of duties
2. A period of maternity leave before and after childbirth …
3. A period of leave taken as childcare leave …
4. Hours reduced under a reduction of working hours during the childcare period
5. Hours reduced under a reduction of working hours during pregnancy
Childcare leave counts as attendance. Even a full year spent entirely on childcare leave is counted as attendance rather than absence, so the year you return 15 days still accrue. “I was off, so I have no leave” does not match the statute.
Items 4 and 5 (reduced hours during childcare and pregnancy) were added on 22 October 2024. Even the reduced hours count as attendance — guidance written before that date is still circulating.
Only work-related injury or illness qualifies (item 1). Ordinary personal sick leave and unexcused absence are not on the list — those cut into your attendance rate.
| Time off | In the attendance calculation | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Work-related injury or illness leave | Deemed attendance | Art. 60(6) item 1 |
| Maternity leave | Deemed attendance | Art. 60(6) item 2 |
| Childcare leave | Deemed attendance | Art. 60(6) item 3 |
| Reduced hours during childcare period | Deemed attendance (added 22 Oct 2024) | Art. 60(6) item 4 |
| Reduced hours during pregnancy | Deemed attendance (added 22 Oct 2024) | Art. 60(6) item 5 |
| Personal sick leave, unexcused absence | Not in the statute | — |
Here are the five items together, with the one people ask about that is not among them.
Who decides when I take it
Article 60(5) An employer shall grant the leave at the time requested by the worker and shall pay ordinary wages or average wages as prescribed by the rules of employment … for that period. Provided, that where granting the leave at the requested time would cause serious impediment to business operations, the employer may change the time.
- The default is the date you pick. A company assigning your dates is not the baseline.
- The only ground for moving it is “serious impediment to business operations.” The statute says the employer may change the time — it does not say the employer may refuse.
- Pay for a leave day is “ordinary wages or average wages” — not unpaid. Which of the two applies is set by the rules of employment.
Do unused days turn into money
Article 60(7) The leave shall lapse if not exercised within one year (for a worker with less than one year of continuous service, the paid leave under paragraph (2) means the period until the first year of service ends). Provided, that this shall not apply where the worker was unable to use it due to reasons attributable to the employer.
The proviso is the whole game — if the company’s own conduct is why you could not use it, the leave does not lapse. It then survives as unused-leave allowance.
Which is why employers need a procedure that makes it not their fault — and that procedure is Article 61. The next article, 62, is substitution: with the representative's written agreement, leave can be taken on a “specific working day” the employer names — and since 2022 public holidays are paid holidays, not working days. The substitution checker tells you whether one stands.
What if the company sends a written notice
Article 61(1) Where the leave lapses because the worker did not use it despite the employer having taken the following measures to promote the use of paid leave, the employer shall not be obligated to compensate for the unused leave, and … it shall be deemed not to constitute a reason attributable to the employer:
1. Within 10 days counting from the point six months before the period ends, the employer shall inform the worker, on an individual basis, of the number of unused leave days and shall urge in writing that the worker fix and notify the dates of use;
2. If the worker does not give notice within 10 days of receiving that urging, the employer shall fix the dates and notify the worker in writing by two months before the period ends.
| Timing | Who | What |
|---|---|---|
| Within 10 days of the 6-months-before mark | Employer | Inform of remaining days individually and urge in writing |
| Within 10 days of being urged | Worker | Fix the dates and give notice |
| By 2 months before expiry | Employer | If the worker did not, employer fixes dates and notifies in writing |
“In writing” appears twice. Both item 1 and item 2 require writing. A verbal reminder or a general company-wide announcement does not meet the statutory requirement — and item 1 says “on an individual basis,” which calls for individual notice.
Read the other way round — if the employer misses any step, the case falls back into the proviso to Article 60(7) as “attributable to the employer,” and unused days must be paid out.
Conversely, if the procedure was followed in full and you still did not use the days, no allowance is due. If you receive a written urging, reply within 10 days with your dates.
The monthly one-day leave of a sub-one-year worker is excluded from paragraph (1) and governed separately by paragraph (2) — there the reference point is three months before the first year of service ends. The windows differ, so check the dates on any notice you received in your first year.
Counting the three steps back from the lapse date puts everyone's window on one axis.
What if my workplace has fewer than five employees
Article 11(1) This Act shall apply to all businesses or workplaces employing five or more workers on a regular basis. Provided, that it shall not apply to a business employing only relatives living together or to domestic workers.
17 September 2026 — the table is open. The earlier version ended at “the Decree table listing which provisions apply is one we could not open this time.” We opened it — and the answer is there is no annual leave.
Annual leave (article 60) applies to workplaces with five or more regular employees. For four or fewer, article 11(2) hands it to the Decree, which may apply some provisions; that list is table 1 of the Enforcement Decree. Under chapter 4 (working hours and rest) only three provisions are listed: articles 54, 55(1) and 63.
What survives from chapter 4 at four or fewer employees
Art. 54 rest breaks · Art. 55(1) one paid weekly holiday · Art. 63 exclusions
Not on the list — art. 60 (annual paid leave) · art. 61 (use promotion) · art. 56 (overtime, night and holiday premiums) · art. 55(2) (public holidays as paid leave) · arts. 50 and 53 (hour caps)
The penalties fall away too. The chapter 12 entry reads “articles 107 through 116 (limited to breaches of provisions that apply to workplaces of four or fewer)” — with article 60 out of scope, article 110 cannot attach either. So the unused-leave payment and the use-promotion procedure in this article do not reach workplaces under five. The same structure zeroing out premium pay is in the holiday work pay calculator.
The reason for the absence is worth naming. Table 1 was last amended on 29 June 2018, and article 60 long predates it — so here the omission really is deliberate, unlike provisions added later that the table has simply never contained. Either way the list is exhaustive: what is not on it does not apply.
How “five on a regular basis” is counted is also left to the Decree (article 11(3)) — Decree article 7-2, and an average is not the end of it. Paragraph (1) is person-days over the month before the triggering event, divided by days operated; paragraph (2) then opens with “notwithstanding paragraph (1)” — even where that falls short of five, if the days below five are fewer than half the period, the workplace counts as five or more. The reverse applies too. “We average 4.8” is not the answer. Part-time pay rules are in our part-time pay calculator, and net pay in the take-home salary calculator.
Questions that keep splitting opinion
I worked exactly one year and quit — how many days?
From the text alone it is not clear how Article 60(2) (one day per full month, up to 11) and Article 60(1) (15 days) join up. We did not check case law or administrative interpretations, so we will not state a number. It is settled alongside severance pay, so it is safer to confirm with the Ministry of Employment and Labor (1350) or a labor attorney.
Can I ask for cash instead of leave?
The statute gives no such right. Article 60 says “shall grant the leave,” not “may pay it out.” An allowance only arises when the days survived the proviso to Article 60(7). Taking the days is the rule.
My company used up all my leave as a summer shutdown
Article 60(5) says the leave shall be granted “at the time requested by the worker,” so a unilateral company designation departs from the rule. There is, however, a separate scheme allowing specific working days to be substituted by written agreement with the workers’ representative, and we did not open that provision this time. Check the rules of employment and any written agreement first.
How is the 80% attendance rate calculated?
The statute says only “attended for not less than 80 percent of one year” and does not define the numerator or denominator. The explanation that it is measured against scheduled working days is widely used, but it is not in the text, so we do not assert it. What is certain is that the five periods in paragraph (6) count as attendance.
Does leave accrue during childcare leave?
Because paragraph (6) item 3 deems childcare leave to be attendance, it does not hurt your attendance rate. The benefit itself is covered in our childcare leave benefit guide, and the both-parents case in the 6+6 guide.
Annual leave is not a question of how many days the company gives, but of how many days the statute already fixed. And for unused days to vanish, the company had to have followed a written procedure.
Sources
- Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center — statutory text — Labor Standards Act, Article 60 (Annual Paid Leave) [in force 23 Oct 2025, Act No. 20520]. Source of 15 days, 80%, one day per full month, one day added every two years, the 25-day cap, paragraph (5) on requested timing and the employer’s right to change it, paragraph (6) on the five periods deemed attendance (items 4 and 5 amended 22 Oct 2024), and paragraph (7) on lapse and its proviso.
- Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center — statutory text — Same Act, Article 61 (Promotion of Use of Annual Paid Leave). Source of the 10-day window from the six-months-before mark, the worker’s 10-day reply, the employer’s written notice by two months before, and the clause that following the procedure means “no obligation to compensate … deemed not attributable to the employer.” Paragraph (2) sets a separate three-months-before reference point for sub-one-year workers.
- Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center — statutory text — Same Act, Article 11 (Scope of Application). Basis for the five-or-more threshold, partial application to workplaces of four or fewer by Decree, and the counting method also being left to the Decree.
- Our own calculation. The days by years of service (16 in year three … 25 in year twenty-one) and the point at which the cap is reached come from applying Article 60(4)’s “one day every two years” ourselves; the statute contains no such table.
Where to check further
- How leave pay is calculated (ordinary versus average wages). Articles 60 and 61 govern days and procedure only and set no basis for the amount — the Ministry of Employment and Labor helpline (1350) will read it alongside your employment rules.
- Whether a use-promotion notice was valid in form and timing. A procedural defect revives the duty to pay — the timing can be tested in the use-promotion deadline calculator (hire date plus the day the notice arrived); for the form, take the notice you received to the regional labor office.
- How companies running leave on a fiscal-year basis settle it. The statute is written around the joining date; fiscal-year operation lives in administrative interpretation — check your employment rules together with the labor helpline (1350).
Written as of August 2026. All quotations are the statutory text as published by the National Law Information Center, and what we could not confirm is listed separately above. Individual cases turn on the rules of employment and the employment contract, so if there is a dispute, check with the Ministry of Employment and Labor counselling line (1350) or a certified labor attorney. This article is general information, not legal advice.
