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.
This article was written in August 2026 by opening Articles 60 and 61 of the Labor Standards Act directly on Korea’s National Law Information Center. Every quotation is the statutory text as written.
Four lines — (1) 80% or more attendance over one year gives 15 days; (2) under one year of service, one day per full month worked; (3) from year three, one extra day every two years, capped at 25 days; (4) ⚠ if the company follows a written notice procedure, unused days expire with no payout.
⭐ How many days — the statute splits this across three paragraphs
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.
⚠⚠ “80% attendance” — five kinds of time off still count as attendance
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 | — |
⭐ When you take it — “the time the worker requests” is the rule
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.
⚠⚠ Unused days expire — but there is a condition
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.
⭐⭐⭐ Use promotion — follow this and the company owes nothing
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.
⚠ If your 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.
⚠⚠ Annual leave (Article 60) applies to workplaces with five or more regular employees. For workplaces of four or fewer, Article 11(2) says “some provisions of this Act may apply as prescribed by Presidential Decree” — but ⚠ the Decree table listing which provisions apply is one we could not open this time. If you are under five, check with the Ministry of Employment and Labor.
⭐ How “five on a regular basis” is counted is also left to the Decree (Article 11(3)). There is a separate counting rule for whether the owner and part-timers are included. 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.
What we could not confirm
- ⚠⚠ The number of days when someone works exactly one year and leaves. The relationship between Article 60(1) and 60(2) cannot be settled from the text alone, so this article states no figure. We did not check case law or administrative interpretations.
- ⚠ The denominator of the 80% attendance rate. The statute does not define it. The “scheduled working days” explanation is widespread but absent from the text, so we do not assert it.
- ⚠ The list of provisions applying to workplaces under five. Article 11(2) delegates it to the Decree, and that table is one we could not open this time.
- ⚠ How the regular headcount is counted. Article 11(3) delegates it to the Decree.
- ⚠ The scheme substituting leave days by written agreement with the workers’ representative. It is a separate provision and we did not open it this time.
- The unit rate used to compute unused-leave allowance. Article 60(5) says only “ordinary wages or average wages” and leaves the choice to the rules of employment.
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.
