When wages go unpaid, the first question is usually "how much will I get if I report it?" Korea's Labor Standards Act answers with three separate numbers. Interest runs at 20% a year (art. 37 and Decree art. 17); damages you may ask a court for reach 3 times the wages (art. 43-8); and the fine tops out at 50 million won from 8 October 2026 (art. 107). All three were added or changed within the last two or three years.
1. On leaving, 14 days - then interest from the day after. Art. 36 says "within 14 days of the day it arose", and art. 37 attaches 20% a year from the next day - 4,931 won on day 15 for 9m won.
2. From 23 October 2025 it runs on wages unpaid while you are still employed. Art. 37(1)(ii) was added by the amendment of 22 October 2024; before that it covered only death or departure.
3. Any one of three grounds opens a claim for 3 times. Plain wilfulness, 3 months unpaid within a year, or unpaid wages reaching 3 months' ordinary wage - 27m won on 9m won.
It reads arts. 36, 37, 43 and 43-8 of Korea's Labor Standards Act, arts. 17, 18 and Table 1 of its Enforcement Decree, and arts. 109 and 107, as written. Art. 36 requires wages, compensation and all other money to be paid within 14 days of the day death or departure occurs, with an extension possible by agreement. From the day after that deadline until payment, art. 37 interest runs; art. 37(1) allows up to 40% a year and Decree art. 17 sets it at 20%. The amendment of 22 October 2024 added art. 37(1)(ii), so from 23 October 2025 the same interest runs on wages unpaid while the worker is still employed (art. 43). Periods during which a natural disaster or one of the Decree art. 18 causes persists - insolvency and the like, legal constraints on funds, or a dispute properly before a court or the Labor Relations Commission - are excluded. The same amendment added art. 43-8: where the non-payment was plainly wilful, where three months or more went unpaid within a year, or where the unpaid total reaches three months' ordinary wage, the worker may ask a court for up to three times the wages (retirement benefits excluded). Arts. 36 and 37 sit inside "arts. 35 to 42" in the chapter-2 row of Decree Table 1, so they apply at workplaces with four or fewer workers too. The threefold figure is a ceiling you may claim, not an amount you receive - the court decides it. An estimate - confirm with your regional labour office or the Ministry call centre (1350).
Nothing to day 14, then 4,931 won on day 15
Art. 36 opens like this: "where a worker dies or leaves, the employer shall pay the wages, compensation and all other money within 14 days of the day the cause arose." A proviso follows: "where there are special circumstances, the date may be extended by agreement between the parties." Not just severance but all money - and not something the employer may postpone alone.
Art. 37(1)(i) pins the interest to that same "fourteenth day". The days in default run from the day after until payment. On 9m won that is 4,931 won a day; 100 days after the cause arose, 86 of them late, it is 424,109 won. To day 14 it is zero - the money was still within time.
Arts. 36 and 37 sit in the chapter-2 row of Decree Table 1 as "arts. 35 to 42". So, as the holiday substitution checker showed, at a workplace with four or fewer workers - where art. 55(2) and art. 56 drop out - these two provisions still apply. No premium, but the interest on unpaid wages runs all the same.
A second door opened on 23 October 2025
The old art. 37 looked only at art. 36 - death or departure. A worker still employed who did not get paid was outside it. The amendment of 22 October 2024 (Act No. 20520) added item 2 to paragraph 1: "wages payable under art. 43: the day fixed under art. 43(2)". It came into force one year after promulgation, on 23 October 2025.
The starting point differs. On death or departure it is "the fourteenth day"; while employed it is "the day fixed under art. 43(2)" - that month's payday under the rules of employment or the contract. Interest runs from the next day. The same amendment added art. 37(2), which settles one more thing: if the duty to pay interest already arose on wages unpaid while employed and the worker then leaves, the interest on those wages is still counted from the payday - leaving does not restart a fresh 14 days.
Art. 37(3) is where the interest stops. A natural disaster or civil disturbance, plus the four causes in Decree art. 18: the insolvency grounds of the Wage Claim Guarantee Act; legal constraints under the Debtor Rehabilitation Act, the National Finance Act or the Local Autonomy Act that make funds hard to secure; cases where the existence of the claim is properly disputed before a court or the Labor Relations Commission; and anything comparable. Only while that cause persists. The wages themselves do not go away.
Drag it a year and it is 20.0% of the wages
The statute does not set the rate itself. Art. 37(1) opens it up - "within a range not exceeding 40 per cent a year ... at the rate prescribed by Presidential Decree" - and Decree art. 17 fixes it at "20 per cent a year". Half the ceiling the Act allows.
On 9m won that is 4,931 won for one day late, 147,945 for thirty, 424,109 for 86, 897,534 for 182 and 1,800,000 won for 365. The last figure is exactly 20.0% of the wages - 20% a year, showing itself. At 86 days it is 4.7%, so even four months of delay costs about a twentieth of what is owed. Interest alone is not pressure. Which is why the 22 October 2024 amendment added something else.
Any one of three opens the courthouse door
Art. 43-8, added by the same amendment, begins: "a worker may, where the employer falls under any one of the following, ask a court to order payment of up to 3 times the wages the employer must pay." Three items follow.
(i) "failing, plainly wilfully, to pay all or part of the wages"; (ii) "where the number of months in which all or part of the wages went unpaid within one year totals 3 or more"; (iii) "where the total unpaid amounts to 3 months' ordinary wage or more". Because it is "any one of the following", one is enough. Someone on 3m won a month who is owed 9m won meets (iii) exactly, and the ceiling becomes 27m won.
Paragraph 2 gives the court four things to weigh: the length, manner, frequency and size of the default; the effort made to pay; the interest already paid under art. 37; and the employer's assets. The third is worth noting - paying the interest sits where it reduces the damages. And in this provision "wages" excludes retirement benefits. The 3-times figure this calculator returns is a ceiling you may claim, not a sum you receive - the court decides the amount.
20% in interest, 300% in damages, 50 million won in fines
The interest is civil - art. 37 carries no penalty of its own. The penalty attaches to not paying. Breaching art. 36 or art. 43 is punished today by art. 109 with up to three years or 30 million won, and under the amendment of 7 April 2026 it moves to art. 107 on 8 October 2026, carrying up to five years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 50 million won. Art. 46, the shutdown allowance from the shutdown allowance calculator, travels on the same line.
Set the three side by side: 9m won unpaid, 1.8m won of interest over a year, a ceiling of 27m won in court, and a fine of up to 50 million won. One fact, and civil interest, civil damages and a criminal fine each attached to it separately. The bar on prosecuting against the victim's expressed wishes (art. 109(2)) moves to art. 107(2) in the same amendment - but an employer already named on the published list who offends again during the publication period does not get that protection. How an employer lands on that list, and the habitual designation that needs no conviction at all, are what the habitual wage arrears checker works out.
Questions that remain
The company says times are hard and asks me to wait.
The proviso to art. 36 allows the date to be "extended by agreement between the parties", so if you agree, the settlement deadline moves to that date. A notice from the employer alone is not an extension. But if rehabilitation or bankruptcy proceedings begin, Decree art. 18 stops the interest for that period.
Can the labour office award the 3 times?
Art. 43-8 says a worker may claim it in court. A complaint to the regional labour office goes to payment of the wages and to criminal liability; the 3-times damages are a civil action. Two different routes.
We have four workers - does interest still run?
Yes. The chapter-2 row of Decree Table 1 applies "arts. 35 to 42" as they stand, so arts. 36 and 37 are alive, and arts. 43-2 through 43-8 sit inside the chapter-3 range "arts. 43 to 45". What is not there is art. 46 (shutdown allowance) and art. 56 (premiums).
Does severance count towards the 3 times?
Art. 43-8(1)(i) brackets it out: "wages (excluding benefits under art. 2(5) of the Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act)". The interest under art. 37(1)(i), by contrast, does cover a retirement benefit lump sum - the two provisions reach differently.
Sources
Korean Law Information Center, Labor Standards Act - statute text - art. 36 (settlement of accounts), art. 37(1)-(3) (interest on unpaid wages; para. 1 item 2 and para. 2 added 22 October 2024), art. 43 (payment of wages), art. 43-8 (damages for unpaid wages, added 22 October 2024), arts. 109 and 107 (penalties; amended 7 April 2026, in force 8 October 2026), and arts. 1 and 2 of the addenda to Act No. 20520 (22 October 2024).
Enforcement Decree of the Labor Standards Act - decree text - art. 17 (the rate: 20% a year, amended 8 April 2025), art. 18 (the four exclusions), art. 7 and Table 1 (provisions applying to four or fewer workers - chapter 2: "arts. 35 to 42"; chapter 3: "arts. 43 to 45").
Calculator verification. Two kinds of wage × four unpaid amounts × three monthly wages × five elapsed periods × three counts of months unpaid × two answers on wilfulness × two on the exclusion = 1,440 cases were checked against the statutory logic in both languages - the deadline, the days in default, the interest, the art. 43-8 verdict, the 3-times ceiling and the total all matched.
Left for another day
The state substitute payment. That belongs to the Wage Claim Guarantee Act, outside this article.
What "plainly wilful" means. The text does not define it - the courts read it.
Whether the principal counts inside the 3 times. The text says only "up to 3 times the wages". This calculator returns the ceiling and does not fold it into the total.
Based on the 2026 provisions. The 14 days, the 20% rate, the 3 times, the three grounds, the penalties and the commencement dates are the statute's; the 9m won, 3m won-a-month, 100-day example is our arrangement. The calculator is an estimate and reads neither an agreed extension nor whether an exclusion truly persisted - confirm with your regional labour office or the Ministry of Employment and Labor call centre (1350).
