Tripartite declaration sets goal to reduce Korea’s working hours to OECD average

Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon, center, poses with representatives of labor and business at the R.ENA Convention Center in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Employment and Labor

Labor, business and government representatives have agreed on a landmark plan to reduce Korea’s annual working hours to about the OECD average by 2030, casting shorter hours as a national strategy for sustainable growth and tackling the low birthrate.

At a public briefing held Tuesday on the “Road Map Task Force for Reducing Actual Working Hours,” representatives announced a joint declaration and policy blueprint committing all three sides to bringing the country’s average annual working hours down to about 1,700 hours, roughly in line with the average for members of the OECD, a group of mostly advanced economies.

This marks the first time the three sides have formally defined reducing working time as a joint mission, presenting it as a necessary step toward achieving “work-life balance.”

Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon and senior representatives of labor and business all pledged to shift the country away from its long-hours work culture toward “qualitative labor,” where efficiency and fair rewards replace reliance on overtime.

“Labor, management and government share the view that reducing actual working hours is one of the key solutions to Korea’s low birthrate, by helping restore work-life balance and creating conditions in which working parents and younger generations can plan their futures," they said in a statement. "They also affirm that cutting actual working hours is not simply a matter of shortening time on the job, but a national task aimed at increasing productivity and achieving sustainable growth through innovation in how people work.”

According to the ministry, Korea has made gradual progress in bringing down working hours over the past 10 years. Actual working time fell from 2,058 hours in 2015 to 1,874 hours in 2023 and an estimated 1,859 hours last year. Yet Korean workers still put in 151 more hours per year than the OECD average of 1,708 hours.

This gap undermines workers’ health and work-life balance and discourages young people and working parents from planning their futures, aggravating Korea’s severe fertility slump, the statement said.

They outlined more specific tasks to achieve the objective, starting with plans to revise the Labor Standards Act and related rules to require transparent recording and management of working hours.

They also plan to enact an Actual Working Time Reduction Support Act in the first half of 2026. The act will establish a legal basis for workers’ right not to receive work orders outside working hours, the creation of more flexible working environments that support work-life balance and state support for labor and management efforts to cut actual working time.

In addition, the government will introduce a system for the oversight of “special extended work” for employees who work additional time ― up to 12 hours per week ― under certain circumstances. It will also survey sectors exempt from standard working‑time rules and then design protective measures, including guarantees of minimum rest periods.

The road map also proposes designating Labor Day as a public holiday for civil servants and teachers, so they, like private‑sector employees, can fully enjoy the day off.

“Even knowing their positions differed, labor and management did not walk away from the negotiation table, but stayed engaged to the end with a sense of responsibility,” the labor minister said. “The government will faithfully implement the agreements reached. Through financial and administrative support, workplace inspections and improvements to laws and institutions, it will work to ensure that the reduction in working hours is clearly felt on the ground.”