The share of ultra-short-hour workers in South Korea's labor market has surged as employers seek to avoid rising costs from stronger worker protection rules, a new study shows.
The Korea Development Institute (KDI) released a report Thursday titled "Factors Behind the Rise of Ultra-Short-Hour Work and Policy Recommendations." Ultra-short-hour workers are defined as those working less than 15 hours per week on a four-week average, or less than 60 hours per month.
According to KDI, ultra-short-hour workers accounted for 8.5 percent of the workforce, or approximately 1.538 million people, last year, up from just 3.7 percent, or about 487,000 workers, in 2012.
"Notably, among newly hired workers with less than one year of tenure, the share of ultra-short-hour workers has exceeded 20 percent since the 2020s," said Jung Soo-hwan, a research fellow at KDI. "Ultra-short-hour work has become a significant employment type in the labor market."
Jung attributed the trend to worker protection regulations. Most labor protections—including the four major social insurance programs (health insurance, employment insurance, national pension, and severance pay), paid annual leave, and weekly holiday pay—apply only to workers averaging 15 hours or more per week. Employers have increasingly hired ultra-short-hour workers to avoid these obligations.
The hourly labor cost gap between ultra-short-hour workers and those working 60 hours or more per month ranges from 25 percent to as much as 40 percent, according to Jung. For employers, hiring three or four ultra-short-hour workers can be more cost-effective than employing one full-time worker for 52 hours per week.
"Recently, there have been reports in the labor market of contracts being split into 14 hours, or even 14 hours and 55 minutes per week," Jung said.
The cost gap has likely widened as social insurance enrollment rates have improved. Social insurance coverage for workers logging 60 to 100 hours per month rose from 40 percent in 2012 to 80 percent last year, according to the report. The analysis found that each 1 percentage point increase in social insurance enrollment among 60-to-100-hour workers corresponded to a 0.065 percentage point rise in the share of ultra-short-hour workers.
KDI called for policy measures that both extend protections to workers logging 60 hours or less per month and reduce the cost burden on employers. The institute also recommended gradually phasing out weekly holiday pay, which it said incentivizes both ultra-short-hour and excessively long working hours.
