Researchers said shortening the work week to 35 hours is a “necessary step” if South Korea hopes to reverse its record-low birth rate. A new report, released on Tuesday by the Gyeonggi Research Institute (GRI), has blamed the country’s alarmingly low birth rate on a corporate culture that demands long work hours for career progression. South Korea has the lowest recorded fertility rate of any country, with government data from 2023 showing the average number of expected babies for a South Korean woman during her reproductive life fell to 0.72 that year from 0.78 in 2022. A fertility rate of 2.1 is needed to maintain a population.
GRI researchers said the current legal limit of 52 hours of work per week – implemented in 2018 and consisting of 40 standard hours plus 12 hours of overtime – did not provide enough work-life balance to encourage family planning. In a 2024 GRI poll of 1,000 workers aged 20 to 59, excessive hours were cited as the biggest barrier to balancing family responsibilities, with 26.1 per cent of men and 24.6 per cent of women listing it as their main obstacle. Dual-income households in their 30s expressed the strongest desire for reduced hours, hoping to cut about 84 to 87 minutes from their working day on average. GRI recommended that public institutions take the lead in reducing the standard work week and consider counting some commuting time as paid working hours. “The [around] one-hour gap between actual and desired working hours is most significant among working couples with children. Lowering the legal work week to 35 hours is a necessary step,” Yoo Jeong-gyun, a research fellow at GRI, told The Korea Herald.
In recent years, South Korea has been actively exploring the implementation of shorter work weeks to enhance work-life balance and address demographic challenges. Notably, in 2024, Gyeonggi province initiated a four-day work week trial involving more than 50 organisations, allowing employees to choose between a condensed work week every fortnight or reduced daily hours. South Korea has introduced many other initiatives to boost its birth rate, including expanding parental leave benefits. In 2024, the government doubled employer-paid paternity leave to 20 days and extended eligibility for fathers to take leave in multiple intervals. Parental leave pay was also increased and new childcare leave entitlements have been introduced for parents of young children.
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