The annual-leave article, having copied out art. 61, said that whether a use-promotion notice was sent at the right time is something to check with the labour office, notice in hand. The timing part, though, can be computed from the statute alone. "Within 10 days from six months before", "within 10 days", "by two months before" - turn the three figures into dates and you get one window and two deadlines. Today's tool does that.
1. On a calendar year (1 Jan-31 Dec): notice 1 July-10 July, dates fixed by 31 October. The worker replies within 10 days of receipt.
2. On the hire-date basis the whole window moves. For a hire on 15 March 2025, the 2026 leave's notice window is 15 September-24 September and dates are fixed by 14 January 2027.
3. Under one year of service there are two clocks. Leave already accrued: 3 months and 1 month before; leave accruing after the notice: 5 days from 1 month before, and 10 days before.
It turns art. 61 and art. 60(7) of Korea's Labor Standards Act into dates. Annual leave lapses if not used within one year of accruing; a first-year worker's monthly leave lasts until the first year of service ends (art. 60(7)). If the employer (1) gives written notice of the unused days and asks the worker to fix dates within 10 days from six months before the end, and (2), where the worker does not reply within 10 days, fixes the dates in writing by two months before the end (art. 61(1)), then leave still unused lapses without any duty to compensate. For workers under one year the clocks are 10 days from three months before and one month before, and for leave that accrues after the first notice 5 days from one month before and 10 days before the end (art. 61(2)). This calculator reads "within M days from N months before the end" as the first M days of the final N months, and "by N months before" as the day before the final N months begin - matching the Ministry's calendar-year examples (1-10 July, 31 Oct, 1-10 Oct, 30 Nov, 1-5 Dec, 21 Dec). Subtracting months lands on the last day where the date does not exist. It reads dates only - not the form or content of the notice. An estimate; confirm with your regional labour office or the call centre (1350).
Ten days from 1 July, then 31 October
Art. 60(7) says annual leave "lapses if not exercised within one year", with a proviso: "not where it could not be used for a cause attributable to the employer." Art. 61(1) says that if the employer takes two steps, it "has no duty to compensate ... and is deemed not to be at fault." The two steps are dates.
Item 1 - "within 10 days from six months before the period ends, the employer notifies each worker of the unused days and urges them in writing to fix when they will take them." For leave granted on 1 January and lapsing on 31 December, the final six months begin on 1 July, so the window is 1 July-10 July.
Item 2 - "if the worker does not fix the dates and notify the employer within 10 days of receiving the notice, the employer fixes the dates and notifies the worker in writing by two months before the period ends." The final two months begin on 1 November, so the deadline is 31 October. Received the notice on 5 July? Your reply is due by 15 July.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor's own calendar-year example is 1-10 July and 31 October. This calculator reads "within M days from N months before" as the first M days of the final N months, and "by N months before" as the day before the final N months begin, which reproduces that example.
Under one year of service, there are two clocks
Art. 61(2) was added on 31 March 2020. A first-year worker's one day of leave per month (art. 60(2)) can be used "until the first year of service ends" (the parenthesis in art. 60(7)), and one clock cannot cover it - leave accruing in November and December cannot be noticed three months in advance.
So item 1 sets the notice at "within 10 days from three months before the first year ends", with a proviso that "for leave accruing after the written notice ... the notice must be given within 5 days from one month before", and item 2 sets the employer's date-fixing at "by one month before", or "by 10 days before" for the proviso leave. For a 1 January hire: 1 October-10 October and 30 November, then 1 December-5 December and 21 December.
"Deemed not to be the employer's fault"
Lay the structure out and the dates explain themselves. Main text (lapse) → proviso (no lapse if the employer's fault - pay instead) → art. 61 (follow the procedure and it is deemed not the employer's fault). Miss a date and art. 61 is not complete; you are back in the art. 60(7) proviso, and the duty to pay unused-leave allowance remains.
Art. 61 writes two clauses in one line - "has no duty to compensate" and "is deemed not to be at fault". Lapse and release arrive together. That is why when you received the notice matters as much as whether you did.
On the hire-date basis, the whole window moves
The statute runs from the hire date - leave accrues on the anniversary and lasts a year from then. For a hire on 15 March 2025, the 2026 leave is granted on 15 March 2026 and lapses on 14 March 2027; the final six months begin on 15 September, so the notice window is 15 September-24 September and dates are fixed by 14 January 2027. Employers that grant leave on 1 January do so under their rules of employment, so check which basis yours uses.
Where a date does not exist when subtracting months, the calculator lands on the last day of that month. Six months before 31 August is 28 February (29 in a leap year); a 29 February hire has its anniversary on 28 February in ordinary years.
Inside the window it lapses; outside, it is paid
Enter the day the employer's notice arrived and the calculator says whether it fell inside the window. Inside: reply with your dates within 10 days of receipt - if you do not, the employer may fix them by the second deadline, and leave still unused then lapses without pay. Outside: that notice does not complete the art. 61 procedure.
But the calculator reads dates only. Whether the notice listed each worker's unused days, whether it urged the worker to fix dates, whether the second notice was in writing - the labour office reads the notice itself. That is also why the annual-leave calculator says it "does not reflect use promotion": days can be computed, the procedure has to be read.
Questions that remain
The company e-mailed the notice in July - is that "in writing"?
The statute says "in writing" and does not define it. Whether e-mail counts is not covered here - take what you received to your regional labour office.
The company sent the notice but never fixed dates.
Item 2 says that where the worker does not reply, the employer "shall notify in writing" the dates it fixes. Where the worker stayed silent, both steps are needed for the two measures. If the worker fixed dates within 10 days, the item 2 notice is not required.
My employer uses the calendar year and I joined mid-year.
Pro-rating and settlement in the first year are a matter for the rules of employment - not in the statute, so not in this calculator. For the first year of service, use the under one year (paragraph 2) setting.
I turned up to work on the day the employer fixed.
Art. 61 stops before that question. How a fixed leave day on which the worker nonetheless worked is treated is outside the text - a matter of Ministry interpretation and case law, so this article does not decide it.
Sources
Korean Law Information Center, Labor Standards Act - statute text (in force 20 Aug 2026) - art. 61(1) items 1 ("within 10 days from six months before ... in writing") and 2 ("within 10 days ... by two months before ... in writing"), art. 61(2) items 1 and 2 with their provisos (three months / 10 days, one month / 5 days; one month, 10 days), and art. 60(7) with its proviso and parenthesis (first-year monthly leave runs until the first year of service ends).
The Ministry's calendar-year example (1-10 July, 31 Oct, 1-10 Oct, 30 Nov, 1-5 Dec, 21 Dec) - used to check that this calculator's reading ("the first M days of the final N months") reproduces all six dates. The example is guidance, not statute; the article's reasoning rests on the statutory wording.
Calculator verification. 384 combinations (six hire dates including 29 Feb, 31 Aug and 31 Dec × two service lengths × two bases × two years × eight notice dates) were checked against the statutory arithmetic in both languages - the lapse date, the notice window, both fixing deadlines, the proviso window, the worker's reply deadline and the inside/outside verdict.
Left for another day
What counts as "in writing". E-mail and electronic approval are not addressed in the text.
The content of the notice. "Notifies each worker of the unused days" - whether a notice missing the count is a notice at all is for the labour office.
Working on a fixed leave day. Outside the text.
Based on the 2026 provisions. The months and days are the statute's; turning them into dates ("the first M days of the final N months"; month-end where a date is missing) and the example dates are our arithmetic. The calculator is an estimate and reads neither the form nor the content of the notice - confirm with your regional labour office or the Ministry of Employment and Labor call centre (1350).
