Minimum Wage and Weekly Holiday Pay

A worker scheduled for 15+ hours a week who attends all scheduled days earns one paid rest day — weekly holiday pay. For a 40-hour worker that adds 8 hours of wages every week, part-timers included.

40 working hours + 8 paid holiday hours = 48 hours/week; multiplied by the average 4.345 weeks per month this gives ≈209 hours. So the 2026 minimum monthly pay is 10,320 × 209 = 2,156,880 KRW. See the year-by-year pages.

For a 40-hour week the effective rate is 1.2× the nominal wage: 10,320 × 1.2 = 12,384 KRW in 2026. Check compliance with the minimum-wage calculator.

① A contract saying "holiday pay included" can still violate the law if the nominal rate falls below minimum wage. ② Lateness does not break perfect attendance, but an absence removes that week’s holiday pay. ③ The final week’s entitlement depends on circumstances — consult the Ministry of Employment and Labor or a labor attorney.

The 209-hour calculation above assumes a 40-hour/week worker. Anyone scheduled for 15+ hours a week — including part-timers — earns holiday pay proportional to their hours. For a 20-hour/week contract, holiday pay scales down to 4 hours (not 8), giving 24 paid hours/week; converted to a monthly average that is roughly 104.3 hours/month, and at the 2026 minimum hourly wage that comes to about 1,076,376 KRW/month.

So halving the hours doesn’t exactly halve the pay — because holiday pay scales along with it, calculating "hourly rate × hours worked" alone understates the real figure. Check your own contracted hours with the minimum-wage calculator.

The 15-hour/week threshold covered here applies to weekly holiday pay and annual leave under the Labor Standards Act — four-insurance enrollment follows separate criteria. National pension and health insurance mostly hinge on income level rather than hours, while employment and accident insurance generally apply broadly regardless of hours — each insurance has its own test. Assuming "15+ hours a week means all four insurances automatically apply" can be wrong, so check enrollment separately via the four-insurances guide. It’s also worth remembering that the minimum wage is a separate floor that applies regardless of hours or holiday-pay eligibility — though not entirely without exception: Article 3 of the Minimum Wage Act carves out businesses employing only cohabiting relatives, domestic workers, and seafarers under the Seafarers Act, and Article 7 allows exclusion, with Ministry of Employment and Labor approval, for people whose working capacity is markedly reduced by a mental or physical disability. If you hold multiple part-time jobs at once, each workplace must independently pay at least minimum wage — pay isn’t combined across employers to decide whether the minimum is met.