Korean Labor Law Guide

It is difficult to find English-language information on Korean labor law.

Anyone who has tried googling their Korean labor law questions will understand what I mean. After conducting an online search, they receive a slew of websites that barely answer their questions. Even when relevant articles are found, they are frequently out of date and insufficiently detailed.

This guide was written in response to a lack of current and relevant information about Korean labor laws in English.

Let me summarize what you can expect from this book.

I begin by summarizing the key provisions of major labor-related laws that govern working conditions. I concentrate on the most important aspects of labor laws. I only cover topics that are of interest to HR managers.

If you want to use an online search to find the information in the book, you should look into more than ten different laws. However, for the most recent amendments, many of them do not have an English translation. Even if a translation is found, you will frequently come across articles that are difficult to understand.

I explain everything in layman's terms. I did my best to translate into plain English what the Korean texts of relevant laws meant.

I include the title and article number of relevant labor laws in each section of the book. You can be confident that I am not inventing anything, but rather accurately relaying the information contained in the law. Because you have the source of the information in the book, it is also useful for writing any HR report.

This book covers employment contracts, work hours and overtime, ordinary wage, average wage, annual leave, holidays, social insurances, non-regular employees, dismissal, employment rules, maternity leave, childcare leave, retirement benefits, and other topics.

Author Biography

Sunny Lee is a labor law consultant who specializes in labor laws in South Korea. He has worked as a consultant and certified public labor attorney for the last fifteen years, advising foreign CEOs and HR managers on Korean labor laws.