Overtime Rules in South Korea

The daily threshold is 8 hours and the weekly threshold is 40 hours. Hours worked beyond either point count as overtime and are paid at 1.5× the regular rate.

Where a figure is not shown, South Korea does not set that threshold nationally, or it is left to a collective agreement. Check the source before applying it to a specific contract.

The maximum working week in South Korea is 52 hours, including overtime. Averaging arrangements over a reference period are common and may change how the limit applies to any single week.

A rest break of at least 30 minutes applies once a shift exceeds 4 hours. Unpaid breaks are excluded from paid hours, which is how the hours calculator treats the break field by default.

A worker in South Korea contracted for 15 hours a week or more who works the week as agreed is owed one paid day of rest on top of the hours worked. It is an extra day of wage rather than a premium on any hour, so it does not change the overtime rate.

The hours calculator shows it on its own line: one paid day at your average ordinary day, capped at eight hours, once the week reaches 15 hours. What is contracted rather than what is worked decides it, so check the contract where the two differ.

Select South Korea in the hours calculator or the timesheet and these thresholds and the 1.5× multiplier are applied to your week automatically. Overtime hours are shown on their own line rather than folded into the total, so the figure can be checked against the statute.