Koreans still work longer despite 5-day workweek

Koreans worked more hours than workers in other comparably well-developed countries, despite a decline in hours spent working over the past several years, a government report said.
The results, released yesterday, came from a survey of firms with more than five full-time employees. The average time a person spent working was 191.4 hours a month in the first 11 months of 2006, said the Labor Ministry.
The 1.5 percent or 2.9 hour reduction from the year before was due to the phased introduction of the five-day work week, which began in July 2004, the ministry said.
Starting in 2004, companies with more than 1,000 workers were required to give workers two days off per week. The government policy was expanded to firms with more than 300 workers one year later, and to firms with 100 employees in 2006. This year, people working for firms with more than 50 employees will benefit from the five-day workweek, and companies with 20 or more workers will start in July 2008.
The ministry said employees put in 174.3 regular hours and 17.1 hours of overtime per month. Overtime was down from 17.6 hours in 2005.
On a weekly basis, Korean workers spent an average of 44.1 hours at their jobs last year, down from 44.7 hours the year before.
Before the five-day workweek was introduced, Koreans worked an average of 198.2 hours a month in 2003. This fell to 197.2 hours in 2004.
Authorities, however, said Koreans still worked the most out of people living in the 30 member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
In 2005, Koreans worked an average of 2,354 hours, 629 hours longer than the average of OECD countries in the same year.
During 2005, French employees spent 1,546 hours at work. British and U.S. workers averaged 1,659 and 1,713 hours, respectively, while Japanese workers punched in 1,775 hours.