Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Higher wages top workers' New Year wishes
Visitors watch and film the first sunrise of the year 2024 in Mount Bukhan in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
By Lee Hae-rin
What Korean workers want the most in 2024 is to receive higher wages, according to a recent poll, Monday.
Pollster Embrain Public surveyed 1,000 salaried workers over the age of 19 and found that 77.7 percent wished for higher wages in the new year, followed by 25.8 percent that chose less intense work or shorter working hours. Multiple answers were allowed.
The poll was commissioned by Gapjil 119, a civic group consisting of labor experts and lawyers dedicated to stamping out the abuse of power at work, a widespread problem in the workplace here.
Some 24 percent wished for job stability or to switch to a regular permanent position, while 18.4 percent wished to be able to take annual leave more freely.
While wage increase ranked top among all age groups, the second wish on the list varied: Respondents in their 20s said they wished to move to a better company, while those in their 30s and 40s chose to work less and those aged over 50 preferred job stability.
Additionally, 70.6 percent of respondents said that they expect their lives at work to get better in 2024, while 29.4 percent said it was more likely that their lives would get worse.
Regarding workplace bullying, 52 percent of female respondents and 51.5 percent of non-regular workers held a pessimistic view, saying that instances of bullying will continue. In contrast, 61.6 percent of male respondents and 60.5 percent of regular workers had more positive sentiments, saying that relevant situations will improve.
Satisfied when working 15-40 hours per week
The Korea Labor Institute published the similar study results in its quarterly journal, stating that longer working hours tend to lower levels of happiness, job and life satisfaction for young Korean workers, and those working from 15 to 40 hours per week showed the highest evaluation of their life.
The study divided workers aged 34 or younger into four groups by weekly working hours — those working less than 15 hours; 15 to 40 hours; 41 to 52 hours; and over 52 hours — and analyzed how working hours affect the level of satisfaction of young people.
As a result, those working from 15 to 40 hours a week showed the highest rate of respondents satisfied with their career at 59.4 percent, followed by less than 15 hours at 52.3 percent, from 41 hours to 52 hours at 50.4 percent and over 52 hours at 45.4 percent, indicating the longer the working hours, the lower the rate of satisfaction.
“Higher working hours per week consistently showed a statistically significant negative effect on the level of happiness, job and life satisfaction in young workers when sociodemographic, academic and professional factors were controlled,” said Park Joo-sang, a researcher at Pukyong National University’s Development of Human Resources and Labor Research Center, who authored the study.
“Longer working hours are shown to bring down the level of happiness for regular workers more significantly than non-regular workers, which suggests that youth employment policies related to long working hours are urgently needed to meet international standards.”