Paid weekly holiday: minimum contractual hours for entitlement

15 hourshours per week, averaged over four weeks

The single most consequential line in Korean part-time work. Below it there is no paid weekly holiday, no statutory severance and reduced social insurance exposure, so a one-hour difference in a contract changes the employer's cost by far more than one hour of pay. It is a standing target of reform proposals in both directions, and it is measured on contractual hours averaged over four weeks, not on the hours any single week happened to produce.

Applies to: All employees, including part-time and fixed-term
Review cadence: Checked once a year

What we have recorded

2026-09-17
15 hours
Where the average weekly contractual hours over four weeks fall below 15, the paid weekly holiday provisions do not apply. The test runs on contractual hours; a week shortened by a public holiday or a company closure does not by itself reduce them.
Labor Standards Act, art. 18(3) and art. 55

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