52-hour workweek is reducing overtime work, study shows

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52-hour workweek is reducing overtime work, study shows

Published: 15 Feb. 2024, 09:19 Updated: 15 Feb. 2024, 16:20

LEE SOO-JUNG
lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr

Office buildings in downtown Seoul turned their lights on in the evening last November. [NEWS1]

Korea used to be one of the most overworked countries, but new data found that Korea's 52-hour workweek rule seems to be helping reduce the number of people who are working overtime.

A total of 2.53 million people, or 12 percent of the country's entire workforce, worked more than 50 hours per week in 2022, the Korea Enterprises Federation (KEF) said Tuesday. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average came at 10.2 percent, a bit lower than the federation's finding.

In 2002, 47.9 percent of all workers spent more than 50 hours a week at work while some 22.1 percent worked more than 60 hours.

The KEF estimated that 670,000 employees worked over 60 hours each week in 2022, or 3.2 percent of the workforce, while the OECD average was 3.8 percent.

After two decades, the groups of employees working more than 50 hours per week and of those working 60 hours per week have been reduced by three quarters and six sevenths, respectively.

“The statistics show Korea is no longer a country of overworking,” Ha Sang-woo, the head of the economic research department at the KEF, said.

The figures from the federation are estimates based on Statistics Korea's data.

While Statistics Korea only discloses the ratio of those working more or fewer than 36 hours weekly, the OECD sets its thresholds at 50 hours or 60 hours per week.

Koreans' working hours have decreased over the years, with the proportion of its population that overworks having shrunk steadily in the past two decades.

People walk toward their offices in central Seoul on Tuesday, a day after the Lunar New Year holiday. [NEWS1]

Since July 2018, businesses or public organizations with more than 300 employees have mandated that employees work less than 52 hours a week, including a base of 40 hours with 12 hours of overtime.

The overworking ratio saw its most drastic decrease in 2018.

The 52-hour rule has applied to businesses with 50 to 300 employees since January 2020. It took effect for all businesses with more than five employees in July 2021.

The second largest decline was in 2013.

“During the earlier days of Park Geun-hye administration, which began in February 2013, there was social discourse about the means to reduce working hours, such as counting work on weekends as extra work, not regular work,” an official from the KEF said.

In 2008, the average yearly working hours per person in Korea was around 2,228 hours. However, the figure recorded 1,901 hours in 2022, which is 149 hours longer than the OECD average.

“Considering the working hours of self-employed and contractual workers, Korea's working hours might be relatively longer than those of other countries. However, the gap between the OECD member states and Korea is forecast to be smaller than expected,” the state-run Korea Development Institute said in a report published last year.

“Korea has now passed its era to devise policies focusing on reducing long working hours,” Ha said. “The country should move on from regulatory-based policies and shift its paradigm to policies that can boost flexibility and productivity.”

BY YOON SUNG-MIN, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]