When the resignation checker opened Table 2, the thirteen just causes for employees, it noted that artists and contract workers have their own lists and left them closed. Those lists are Table 2-2 and Table 2-3 of the same Rule. Opened, they turn out to hold thirteen items each - the same count as the employee list - and one figure the employee list does not have.
1. All three lists have thirteen items. Table 2 for employees, Table 2-2 for artists, Table 2-3 for contract workers - and the last two are word for word the same.
2. One figure differs. The 20 per cent in item 1(a) - where the employer changes pay, contract term and the like by 20 per cent or more. The employee list carries no percentage at all.
3. The claim conditions differ. Employees: 180 days in 18 months. Artists: 9 months in 24 months. Contract workers: 12 months in 24 months - and both must have held that status for 3 months of the 24 months.
It reads arts. 77-3 and 77-8 of the Employment Insurance Act and Tables 2-2 and 2-3 of its Rule as written. An artist needs 9 insured months in the 24 before leaving (art. 77-3(1)1); a contract worker needs 12 in the same 24 (art. 77-8(1)1); and both must have held that status for 3 of those 24 months. The reason for leaving runs through the borrowed art. 58(2)(c), and Rule art. 101 sends artists to Table 2-2 (paragraph 3) and contract workers to Table 2-3 (paragraph 4). Each table has thirteen items, and they differ only in the name of the contract and in item 13's "another artist" or "another contract worker". Five places carry a figure: the 20 per cent in item 1(a), the two months within the year before leaving in item 1, the three-hour round trip in item 6, the 30 days in item 7, and the child aged 8 or under, or in the second year of primary school or below (an adopted child counts) in item 10. Items 7, 9 and 10 also require that the employer could not change the contract terms; item 9 requires a doctor's note and the employer's account. Even off this list there is a separate route where income fell (proviso to art. 77-3(1)3, Decree art. 104-8(1)) - not built into this checker. The finding is made by the head of the employment security office - this checker reads only the figures. An estimate - confirm with your employment centre (1350).
First, the window is different
For employees, art. 40(2) sets "180 days of insured units within the 18 months before leaving". For artists and contract workers the borrowing provisions rewrite that 18 months as 24 months, and what must be filled is counted in months, not days.
One more line follows: you must have "held insured status as an artist (or contract worker) for 3 months or more of the 24 months before leaving" (arts. 77-3(1)4 and 77-8(1)4). Filling the total is not enough - there is a separate minimum for time held in that status.
The figure the employee list does not have - 20 per cent
Employee Table 2, item 1(a), reads: "where the actual terms of work became lower than those offered on hiring, or than those generally applied after hiring". How much lower is never said.
The artist and contract-worker lists are different. "Where the insured person did not agree to a change of terms and the employer nonetheless seeks unilaterally to change pay, contract term or anything comparable by 20 per cent or more against the terms at the time of contracting" - the percentage is written in. Nineteen per cent does not reach this sub-item.
Sub-item (b) of the same item covers "where a sum payable under the contract was not paid, or was paid late". Under either sub-item, the ground must have run for two months or more within the year before leaving - the same as for employees.
Where else the lists diverge
Set the three side by side and four places differ.
| Place | Table 2, employees | Tables 2-2 and 2-3 |
|---|---|---|
| item 1(a) | terms simply lower - no percentage | pay, term and the like changed by 20 per cent or more |
| harassment | item 3 plus item 3-2 - split in two | item 3 alone - superior position included |
| item 12 | retirement age or end of a fixed term | term ending, or no fault of yours |
| item 13 | another employee would also have left | another artist / contract worker |
In full, the wording the table trims runs like this. The employee item 3-2 is "workplace harassment under art. 76-2 of the Labour Standards Act", while item 3 of the artist and contract-worker tables adds "physical or mental suffering through abuse of a superior position at the site" to sexual harassment within the single item. That it cites no Labour Standards Act provision is itself the point - that Act is a statute about employees.
Item 12 stands out. The employee list names retirement age and the end of a fixed term; the other two write it more broadly as "the term ending or another reason for which the insured person is not at fault" - retirement disappears and "not your fault" takes its place.
Item 10 carries a bracket the employee list lacks: a child "8 or under, or in the second year of primary school or below (including an adopted child)".
Items 7, 9 and 10 replace the employee wording "where leave or a career break was refused" with "where the employer's circumstances made a change of contract terms impossible". The relationship is a services contract, not employment, so the wording moves with it.
There is one more route, off the list
One provision has no employee counterpart. The proviso to art. 77-3(1)3: "where the head of the employment security office recognises that the person left because of a fall in income as prescribed by Presidential Decree, this shall be deemed not to fall within the disqualifying grounds of art. 58". Art. 77-8(1)3 carries the same proviso for contract workers.
Decree art. 104-8(1) splits that fall in income in two.
- Item 1. Income from the final contract over the three months before the month of leaving fell 20 per cent or more against the same period a year earlier.
- Item 2. The monthly average over those three months was below last year's monthly average, and at the same time five months or more of the last twelve months were at least 20 per cent below that average.
The trade-off is a longer wait. Employees wait seven days (art. 49); an artist leaving for this reason waits four weeks (Decree art. 104-8(5)1). For contract workers it turns on the size of the fall: four weeks where it is 30 per cent or more but under 50 per cent, and two weeks where it is 50 per cent or more (Decree art. 104-15(5)).
The bigger the fall, the shorter the wait. Someone whose income more than halved waits only two weeks. The Decree gives no reason for splitting it that way - but "50 per cent or more" is plainly the line.
What the borrowing list leaves out
Arts. 77-5(2) and 77-10(2) name the borrowed articles one by one: 37-2, 38, 38-2, 40(2)1, 41(2), 42, 43, 43-2, 44, 47, 48, 50, 56 to 58, and 60 to 63.
What is absent matters more.
- Art. 46 (the daily amount) - so there is no minimum daily benefit, no floor. The ceiling is set separately by the Decree at 68,100 won (arts. 104-8(4) and 104-15(4), amended 23 December 2025) - the same figure as for employees.
- Art. 49 (the seven days wait) - art. 77-3(6) sets its own seven days instead, becoming four weeks or two weeks under the proviso above.
- Arts. 51 to 55 (training, individual and special extended benefit) - no extended benefit at all.
- Arts. 64 to 67 (job-promotion allowances) - neither the three written up this morning nor the early reemployment allowance is borrowed.
The daily benefit is 60 per cent of the base daily amount (arts. 77-3(4) and 77-8(4)). For employees that rate moves between 60 and 80 depending on circumstances; here it is 60 and nothing else - no clause lifts it, and no floor catches it.
Questions that remain
What if you are both an artist and a contract worker? Decree art. 104-8(2) and (3) set the arithmetic - insured units are counted specially where someone worked in two or more of the three statuses, and time insured in two at once counts on one side only. The fourth status, the self-employed, counts differently again - and only two things are left out of its borrowing list.
What about short-term artists and workers? Art. 77-3(1)6 adds conditions: fewer than 10 service days in the month before applying, or 14 consecutive days with none; and where a past departure fell within the disqualifying grounds, 90 days or more of the insured period must have been short-term work.
Who is the "employer" on these lists? Both tables define it up front as the operator of the business that entered the contract - the counterparty, not an employer in the ordinary sense.
If the checker says "listed", is the benefit payable? No. The finding is made by the head of the employment security office; the checker reads only the figures in the rule.
Sources
Korean Law Information Center, Employment Insurance Act - the statute - source for art. 77-3 (artists: 9 months in 24 months, 3 months in status, the income-fall proviso, 60 per cent, ceiling by Decree, the waiting period), art. 77-5(2) (the borrowing list), art. 77-8 (contract workers: 12 months in 24 months) and art. 77-10(2).
Enforcement Decree of the same Act - the statute - source for art. 104-8 (the two income-fall routes, the 68,100 won ceiling, the four weeks and two weeks waits, short-term insured periods) and art. 104-15 (the same ceiling for contract workers, and the 30 per cent / 50 per cent split).
Enforcement Rule of the same Act - the statute - source for art. 101(3) and (4), which send artists to Table 2-2 and contract workers to Table 2-3.
Tables 2-2 and 2-3 of the Rule - Table 2-2 and Table 2-3 - both amended 31 December 2024, 13 items each. Source for the wording of all thirteen and for the 20 per cent, two months, three hours, 30 days and age-8 figures.
Checker verification. 96,768 combinations were run against the statutory test in both languages - labels as well as verdicts.
Where to check further
The income-fall route. Not built into the checker - it needs last year's income figures, and it is something the employment security office recognises rather than a arithmetic test.
Prescribed benefit days. Art. 77-3(7) treats the insured period for that calculation as the insured unit period, with a separate rule by Decree for short-term artists - not modelled here.
The base daily amount. For artists and contract workers this depends on how the year's remuneration before leaving is read - this checker does not calculate an amount.
"The employer's circumstances made a change of terms impossible." What satisfies that sits outside the provisions - ask your employment centre.
Based on the provisions in force in 2026. The conditions and wording are as written; the comparison across the three lists is ours. The checker is an estimate, and the finding is made by the employment security office - confirm with your employment centre or the ministry helpline (1350).
