Moon’s shorter workweek is going to cost businesses

Korean businesses will have to spend more than 12 trillion won ($10.9 billion) annually in additional payments and be compelled to train more employees if the government imposes a weekly 52-working-hour limit, a report said Sunday.

The Moon Jae-in administration is pushing ahead with a revision to the Labor Standards Act, pending approval by the National Assembly, limiting the maximum working hours as a means to implement an election pledge to create over 800,000 new jobs in the public sector.

The Moon government is pushing to reduce annual working hours to below 1,800.

Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show an average Korean worked 2,069 hours in 2016, 306 hours more than the OECD average of 1,763 hours.

A Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) report said the 52 weekly working hour limit will cost businesses 12.3 trillion won every year.

YONHAP