Korean hairstylists face exploitation, abuse due to legal loopholes

Lim Sang-hoon, left, and Kwon Soo-hang stand in front of the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Office in Jung District, Seoul, on May 30. Korea Times photo by Song Ju-yong

Kwon Soo-hang, a 33-year-old hairstylist in Daegu who asked to be identified by a pseudonym, showed his hands, their skin damaged and peeling.

“My skin barrier broke down from repeated exposure to perm solution, and it became difficult even to bend my fingers,” he said.

In November 2022, Kwon began working at a major hair salon franchise with hundreds of locations nationwide. At first, it seemed like the breakthrough he had waited for over a decade-long career, one that began at 18 with sweeping salon floors. But the job soon turned into something else: long hours, workplace abuse and little legal protection.

Kwon said the problem began with the freelance contract he signed with the franchise salon.

Under that contract, he said, he was made to work from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. or from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., six days a week. Weekends were included because they were the busiest days for customers.

On average, he handled 12 to 13 customers a day and worked about 60 to 66 hours a week. Yet because he was classified as a freelancer, he said, he was not paid overtime or extra compensation for working on holidays and rest days.

His pay was unstable, too. He received no base salary because he was classified as a freelancer, and was instead paid a commission based on what customers spent.

“At first, I received 30 percent of each payment. Later, it rose to 48 to 51 percent,” he said.

His freelance status also left him without workers’ compensation insurance. When repeated exposure to perm solution and other salon chemicals left his hands damaged, he paid his medical bills out of pocket.

Kwon said the damage was tied to a workplace rule that punished stylists for failing to finish customers within a set time, effectively pressuring them to skip safety precautions, including wearing gloves.

Kwon Soo-hang’s hands are damaged from repeated exposure to perm solution. Although he worked as an employee in practice, his classification as a freelancer left him without workers’ compensation insurance. Korea Times photo by Song Ju-yong

Kwon was not alone in describing exploitative conditions at South Korean hair salons. Several hairstylists interviewed by the Hankook Ilbo said freelance contracts have become a de facto practice in South Korea’s beauty industry.

Behind the seemingly flexible label of “freelancer,” many salon workers remain under tight control by their employers, with little autonomy and few of the legal protections guaranteed to employees.

Some stylists voluntarily sign freelance contracts, believing they can earn more if they work harder. But the reality is often different. Because many receive no base salary, stylists are pressured to finish low-priced haircuts as quickly as possible while simultaneously handling more time-consuming treatments. If there are few customers, or if they are assigned lower-priced treatments, their income falls.

Kwon also said the salon where he worked was a “disguised” small workplace, falsely classified as having fewer than five employees, a category that allows some businesses in Korea to avoid honoring key labor protections.

Under Korean law, workplaces with fewer than five employees are exempt from parts of the country’s labor law, including rules on the 52-hour workweek, premium pay for overtime and weekend work, remedies for unfair dismissal, and protections under the workplace harassment law.

Kwon said the salon hired hairstylists and interns as freelancers so that, on paper, it had fewer than five employees.

After months of working inside that legal blind spot, he decided in late August to step away from the beauty industry.

For interns, the situation was just as dire, if not worse.

Lim Sang-hoon, a pseudonym for a 29-year-old intern who worked at the same salon as Kwon, said he worked eight hours a day, six days a week, but earned only 500,000 won ($325) to 700,000 won a month.

“I was originally supposed to receive 1.5 million won, but the owner forced me to take a beauty-related course and deducted 1 million won from my pay every month as a fee,” Lim said.

Lim said he kept quiet because he feared retaliation. But enduring it did not protect him. One day, about six months after he started working at the salon, he was fired without warning.

According to Lim, the owner gathered the staff for lunch and told them to write down the tasks Lim was still struggling with. The owner then threw the papers in his face and told him he was fired.

Here again, the loophole lies in South Korea’s rules for workplaces with fewer than five employees. Employers are not required to provide written explanations for dismissals, and workers cannot seek relief for unfair dismissal.

“It was bitter to see workers left unprotected like this, even though laws meant to protect them exist,” Lim said.

An image generated by artificial intelligence

Yoo Seo-eun, a pseudonym for an intern who worked at a hair salon in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, found herself caught in the same structure.

She said she signed a freelance contract after the salon manager told her it would help save on costs, including contributions to the four major social insurance programs. Like others, that decision later became the source of the problem.

Yoo worked at two salons run by the same owner. In practice, they appeared to be one business. On paper, however, they were separate, apparently to reduce the number of employees at each workplace and avoid labor law obligations.

When Yoo asked for basic labor rights, including guaranteed break time, she said she was met with insults.

“You are rude. I cannot forgive you,” she recalled being told. She was later fired unilaterally.

Yoo filed a petition with labor authorities seeking relief for unfair dismissal. The owner initially argued that the salon was a workplace with fewer than five employees and therefore not subject to unfair dismissal remedies. But an investigation recognized it as a disguised small workplace, and Yoo’s petition was accepted.

Experts familiar with the matter said stronger measures are needed to crack down on fake small workplaces and the widespread practice of classifying hairstylists as freelancers in South Korea’s beauty industry.

Ha Eun-sung, a labor attorney, said punitive damages should be introduced for employers who deliberately undercount regular employees or falsely classify workers as freelancers to evade labor law obligations.

He also criticized labor authorities for what he described as perfunctory reviews of disguised small businesses.

“A more thorough inquiry is needed into the underlying facts, including whether labor laws were observed as workers moved between multiple workplaces under the same employer,” he said.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.