You have signed with a Korean employer, or you are about to leave one, and the questions come in a fixed order. What has to be on the contract? Is the payslip right? How much leave do I have? What happens when the baby comes? What do I get when I go? We have read the statute behind each of those questions in a separate guide — 53 guides on work alone. This page lines them up in the order you meet them, with the one figure from each that people most often get wrong, and a link to the guide that shows the working.
1. Start with paper. A written contract stating wages, hours, holidays and annual leave is required even with 4 or fewer workers, on pain of a fine of up to 5 million won. The 2027 minimum wage is 10,700 won an hour.
2. Headcount changes the money. Below five workers there is no 50% premium for overtime, night or holiday work; breaks and the written contract apply at any size.
3. Leaving has deadlines. Jobseeker benefit needs 180 insured days in the 18 months before you leave and pays between 66,048 and 68,100 won a day; severance goes to an IRP within 14 days.
1. Starting a job
The first week decides what you can prove later. Keep the contract and the first payslip; most of the disputes in the sections below come back to one of the two.
| Question | The figure that matters | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Do I need a written contract? | Yes. Fine of up to 5 million won, even with 4 or fewer workers; part-time and fixed-term staff add 500,000 or 300,000 won per missing item | Written contract |
| What is the minimum wage? | 10,700 won an hour in 2027, 2,236,300 won a month. If meals are given in kind the same pay can work out at 9,743 | 2027 minimum wage checker |
| How much of my salary do I keep? | Social insurance takes 9.72% for most people, 6.53% at the top. You keep 90% at 24 million won a year and 79% at 100 million | Net salary calculator · net pay table |
| Part-time: when does weekly holiday pay start? | 15 hours a week, measured as a four-week average; the probation floor is 9,288 won in 2026 | Part-time pay calculator |
| Which allowances are tax-free? | Meals (where none are provided), car and childcare allowances up to 200,000 won a month each; childbirth support in full | Non-taxable allowances |
| Am I in the national pension as a foreigner? | Covered automatically at a covered workplace; the lump-sum refund applies in only 3 cases | Foreigners and the national pension |
2. Hours and pay
Two questions come first on any pay question in Korea: how many people work there, and which working-hours scheme applies. The same shift can be paid at two different rates depending on the answers.
| Question | The figure that matters | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Overtime and night work | At least 50% extra beyond 8 hours a day or between 22:00 and 06:00; not at workplaces of four or fewer | Overtime & night pay calculator |
| The weekly limit | 52 is 40 plus 12 under ordinary hours; under a flexible scheme a single week can lawfully reach 64 | Overtime limit checker |
| Breaks | 30 minutes at 4 hours, 1 hour at 8, at any size of workplace. From 10 December 2026 a 4-hour shift can skip the break if the worker explicitly asks | Break-time checker |
| Working a public holiday | The 1.5x answer needs a condition: below five staff the premium is zero | Holiday work pay calculator |
| Day labour and income tax | Nothing up to 150,000 won a day; 1,350 won on 200,000 | Daily worker tax calculator |
| Average wage (the base for severance and many benefits) | Pay in the 3 months before, divided by the total days, with 8 kinds of period such as probation and parental leave taken out | Average wage calculator |
3. Annual leave
Annual leave is where the most money is lost by a single day. The statute counts days, sets when unused days lapse, and lets the employer avoid a payout through a written procedure — three separate rules.
| Question | The figure that matters | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| How many days? | 15 days after a year, rising to a 25-day cap | Annual leave guide |
| Leaving after exactly one year | 11 days at one year, 26 one day later | Annual leave calculator · one-year exit |
| Are unused days paid out? | The default is that they lapse; payment is the exception, and the divisor 209 appears in no statute | What unused leave is worth |
| The employer's use-promotion notice | It must fall within a 10-day window; one date decides whether the payout is cancelled | Use-promotion deadlines |
| Taking leave on a public holiday | Since 2022 a public holiday is a paid holiday at workplaces of five or more, not a working day to swap | Leave substitution checker |
4. Having a baby
Four kinds of leave touch a birth, and each has its own window. The one people miss is paternity leave, because it can start before the birth.
| Question | The figure that matters | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Maternity leave pay | On a 3 million won monthly wage the total is 8.2 million won at any size of firm; size only changes who pays | Maternity leave calculator |
| Paternity leave | 20 paid days, from 50 days before the due date to 120 days after the birth, in up to 3 parts; insurance pays up to 1,684,210 won at priority-support firms | Paternity leave calculator |
| Parental leave for a year | From an ordinary wage of 2.5 million won the total is 23.1 million won; claims open one month in | Parental leave guide · calculator |
| Both parents (6+6) | Not a doubling: the ceiling rises with the months each parent uses | 6+6 dual-parent leave |
| Working shorter hours instead | The first 10 hours a week cut are paid at 100%, anything beyond at 80% | Reduced hours for childcare |
| Infertility treatment leave | 6 days a year; paid days rise from 2 to 4 on 27 November 2026; up to 84,210 won a day from insurance | Infertility leave calculator |
| Are these benefits taxed? | No. Jobseeker, parental leave and maternity benefits are tax-free and left out of total pay | Is unemployment benefit taxable? |
5. When something goes wrong
| Question | The figure that matters | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Wages not paid | Due 14 days after you leave; from the next day interest runs at 20% a year, and court can award up to three times | Unpaid wage interest |
| An employer who does it again and again | “Five times” counts five workers, not five late paydays | Habitual arrears checker |
| Workplace harassment | The only criminal penalty in the scheme is for punishing someone who reported it | Workplace harassment |
| The business shuts down for a while | The floor is 70% of the ordinary wage | Shutdown allowance |
| Wages garnished for a debt | Half is protected, with a floor of 2.5 million won a month | Wage garnishment |
| Dismissed | Just cause, written notice and 30 days' notice are three separate rules; only the written notice decides whether the dismissal takes effect | Dismissal |
6. Leaving the job
This is the section with the deadlines. The year for jobseeker benefit runs from the day after your last working day, not from the day you apply, so the order below is the order to do things in.
| Question | The figure that matters | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| I resigned — do I get anything? | Only for one of 13 just causes; four carry a figure: two months, three hours, 30 days, age 8 | Resigning and jobseeker benefit · separation codes |
| Am I eligible? | 180 insured days in the 18 months before leaving (24 months for very short hours) | 180-day rule calculator |
| How much a day? | 60% of the average wage, between 66,048 and 68,100 won — a band only 2,052 won wide | Jobseeker benefit calculator · how to apply |
| By when? | Within 12 months of the day after leaving, with a 7-day waiting period; report late and days are lost | Benefit deadline calculator |
| I found work early | Half of what is left: nothing at 104 days left, 3.47m won at 105 | Early reemployment allowance |
| Training, extensions and other allowances | Training extension at 100% for up to 2 years; other allowances such as 10,320 won a day | Extensions · other allowances |
| Day workers, the self-employed, artists | Day workers need under one-third working days since the 1st of last month | Day workers · self-employed · artists |
| Severance | Owed after 1 year | Severance calculator |
| Where is severance paid? | Into an IRP within 14 days, with five exceptions including leaving after 55 and foreign workers departing | Severance to an IRP |
| Tax on severance | Into a pension account within 60 days and no tax is withheld; drawn as a pension, 70%, 60% or 50% of the lump-sum rate | Severance tax deferral |
| Severance before leaving | Nine settlement reasons, and even then the employer “may” | Interim settlement |
| Pension type | In a DC plan the employer pays at least 1/12 of annual pay | DB vs DC · DC contributions |
| Income tax when you leave mid-year | Settled with your final pay; a May return if there is no new job that year | Mid-year leavers |
| Retirement age | 60; anything lower counts as 60 | Retirement age 60 |
Dates to note
| Date | What changes |
|---|---|
| 27 November 2026 | Infertility treatment leave: the first 4 days are paid, up from 2 |
| 10 December 2026 | A 4-hour shift can skip the break if the worker explicitly asks |
| 2027 | Minimum wage 10,700 won an hour, up 380 won (3.7%) |
Three situations, in order
You are about to resign. Before your last day: count your annual leave and what the unused days are worth, open an IRP and give the account to your employer, and check whether your reason is one of the 13 just causes. After it: report to the employment centre early, because the 12 months started the day after you left, and keep an eye on the 14-day severance deadline.
A baby is due. Paternity leave opens 50 days before the due date, so the partner's plan starts first. Maternity leave pay is the same total at any size of firm. Parental leave can be claimed from one month in, and if both parents take it the 6+6 ceiling applies.
Your pay is late. Note the date: after you leave, the employer has 14 days, and interest at 20% a year runs from the next day. Keep the contract and payslips; a missing written contract is an offence in itself.
Checklist
- ☐ A written contract with wages, hours, holidays and annual leave
- ☐ How many people work there (four or fewer, five or more)
- ☐ Hourly pay at or above the minimum wage, measured on regular monthly pay
- ☐ Annual leave days and the date a year of service completes
- ☐ Before leaving: an IRP account named to the employer
- ☐ After leaving: jobseeker benefit reported early in the 12-month window
Questions that remain
Does all this apply to foreign workers?
The guides read the Korean statutes as written. Where foreigners are treated differently in what we read, the guide says so: national pension coverage and its lump-sum refund (Art. 126 of the National Pension Act), and the IRP exception for foreign workers who leave the country. Visa and immigration rules are outside these guides.
Why does the size of the workplace keep coming up?
Because some rules stop below five workers and others do not. Overtime, night and holiday premiums are not owed below five; the written contract and the break rules apply at any size. Ask the headcount question first.
Are the figures current?
Each guide states the version of the statute or notice it read and the date it was checked. Dated changes we know of are in the table above.
Sources
- Our guides linked above — each cites the statute, decree or ministry notice it reads (law.go.kr, Work24, Ministry of Employment and Labor) with the date checked. The figures on this page are copied from those guides.
- Not read. Visa and immigration rules, collective agreements and company rules.
- What we added. The grouping, the order and the three situations.
Where to check further
- The Ministry of Employment and Labor and your local employment centre — for your own case.
Written on 26 October 2026. The figures are from the linked guides; the grouping is ours.
