Less than a generation ago, South Korea held an unenviable distinction that it has since sought to shed: that of being the country of exhausted workers.
Burdened by mandatory company dinners and unspoken expectations to stay late at the office, South Koreans worked an average of 2,357 hours in 2006, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developmentwhich includes most developed countries.
That figure, which equates to more than 48 hours a week if the typical three weeks of vacation are taken into account, was 31% higher than in the USA and 70% higher than in the Netherlandswhich ranked lowest.
Although the introduction of a 52-hour workweek in 2018 and other labour reforms led to major reductions, traces of this still remain. high pressure work culture stay.
South Koreans, who work an average of 1,872 hours a year (a reduction of 10 hours a week), now rank sixth among the 38 OECD members, after Mexicans, Costa Ricans, Chileans, Greeks and Israelis who work the most hours.
Many in the country now say it is time to take an even more drastic step: switching to a four-day work week.
The notion has taken on special resonance in South Korea, where poor work-life balance is widely seen as one of the main reasons for a fertility rate in free fallwhich politicians have described as a national emergencyLast year, South Korea's fertility rate was 0.72 births per woman, well below the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population.
“Reducing working hours is an unavoidable necessity of these times,” lawmaker Park Hong-bae told reporters this month. “It is the key to solving the many challenges South Korea faces today.”
As in much of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a fundamental change in the way South Koreans view their jobs.
Reports of delivery drivers and other frontline workers dying of exhaustion fueled a broader sense of disappointment with the status quo, while those working from home found themselves questioning which of their daily tasks were really necessary.
Healthcare workers check their protective equipment outside a COVID-19 testing center at Incheon International Airport in 2023. Like much of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way many South Koreans view their jobs.
(Lee Jin-man / Associated Press)
“Working less is one of the few labor policy issues that enjoys high support across both political parties, especially among millennials and Gen Z,” said Kim Jong-jin, a labor researcher at the Korea Worker Institute.
According to a survey conducted last month by local polling firm Global Research, more than 60 percent of working South Koreans are in favor of a four-day workweek. Among workers in their 20s and 30s, that figure is over 70 percent.
Another survey, conducted last year by human resources firm Wanted, found that more than half of the 1,700 respondents preferred a four-day workweek even if it meant a reduction in pay.
In other parts of the world, shorter working weeks are increasingly supported by real evidence that they increase productivity and are gaining ground.
With American workers reporting high levels of exhaustionIn March, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) proposed a bill to enact a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay.
Steve CohenThe billionaire hedge fund manager and owner of the New York Mets has predicted that efficiency gains achieved by artificial intelligence will soon make the four-day workweek the norm.
In Britain, the majority of the 61 companies and organisations that participated in a six month trial Those that implemented the shorter workweek in 2022 (the largest such experiment in the world to date) made the change permanent and reported improved employee retention and higher productivity at work.
South Korean businessmen and politicians are also beginning to take note.
Last year, Severance Hospital, one of the largest in the country Medical InstitutionsHe tested a four-day workweek for some of his nurses.
A medical worker walks towards Seoul National University Hospital. Last year, Severance Hospital, one of South Korea's largest medical institutions, had success with its trial of a four-day workweek for some nurses.
(Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press)
Although accompanied by a 10% pay cut negotiated with the hospital union, the program reported a significant decrease in employee turnover and increased patient satisfaction.
Following smaller-scale experiments by several regional governments to reduce civil servants’ working hours, the government of Gyeonggi Province (the most populous province) recently announced that it will spend $7.4 million to launch its own 4½-day workweek pilot program next year, in which about 50 private and public employers plan to participate.
The Korean Financial Industry Union, which represents the country’s bank workers, has framed its demand for a four-and-a-half-day workweek as a matter of national survival, saying “the first thing to do to solve the country’s fertility crisis is to reduce working hours.”
In the final collective bargaining agreement provisionally reached with the union this week, employers stopped short of granting a full half-day cut per week but agreed to try a 30-minute reduction in daily working hours starting next year.
Kim Jang-ung, a 32-year-old office worker at a major Seoul retail company, said a widespread four-day workweek seems a far more effective pro-fertility measure than any current policy.
He and his wife have recently started planning to have a family, but he wonders how he will cope when he spends more than 12 hours a day traveling or in the office.
“I would like to have enough time to be able to really take care of my son,” she said.
Like his wife, who also works, Kim is legally entitled to a year of maternity or paternity leave, and his company has a policy that allows fathers to arrive at work a little later if they need to drop their children off at daycare. But there is an unspoken stigma against making full use of these policies.
“Everyone understands that if you use all your parental leave, you're not going to get promoted,” she said.
But South Korea's small and medium-sized businesses, which employ the majority of the country's workforce, say they are not in a position to adopt a four-day workweek.
A man carries his daughter to a polling station in Seoul in April 2024. Some workers considering starting a family are wondering how they will cope when they spend more than 12 hours a day commuting or in the office.
(Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press)
Lee Myung-ro, head of the labor policy division of the Korean Federation of SMEs, said these companies are caught in a vicious cycle: long working hours are alienating young workers, deepening labor shortage which further reduce productivity and increase individual workloads.
Although South Korea ranks sixth in hours worked among OECD members, the country's labour productivity (measured by GDP per hour worked) ranked only 33rd out of 38 in 2022.
“Low productivity at smaller companies has to do with the fact that they lack the capital to modernize their operations with technology, as well as the fact that their workforces are aging rapidly,” Lee said. “There aren’t many short-term measures they can take to increase productivity.”
But since there are no easy answers to either question, he hopes there are still employers willing to give him a chance.
“All of these companies know that young workers today prioritize work-life balance,” he said. “Those that have the ability to do so will certainly try.”
