According to South Korea's labor law, when an employer intends to dismiss an employee (including dismissal for business reasons unrelated to the employee's conduct), the employer must give the employee a notice of dismissal of at least 30 days. If the employer fails to give such advance notice, the employer must pay that employee their ordinary wages for no less than 30 days. The notice requirement does not apply where a natural disaster, calamity, or other unavoidable circumstance prevents the continuance of the business, where the employee has caused a considerable hindrance to the business, or where the employee has intentionally inflicted damage to the employer's property.
The Immigration Service of South Korea does not provide work permits per se, but work status is determined by visas.
Foreign nationals must generally obtain the appropriate visa before they enter South Korea for business or work purposes. Employers may not use or employ foreigners who do not have proper work visas.
There are 36 types of visas, nine of which are related to the visa-holders' employment. The visas fall into the general categories of business and employment visas.
There are four types of business visas:
The D-7 visa is the most common visa for a foreign national employed by a foreign company or a foreign company's subsidiary.
Employment visas are issued to foreign nationals who wish to be directly employed by a South Korean company:
Under South Korea's labor law, full-time salaried employees are entitled to 15 days of paid annual leave after 1 year of service with an organization. During their first year of service, employees earn 1 day of leave for every fully worked month (for a total of 11 days of leave). Employees must have at least 80% attendance during any year of service to qualify for paid leave.
Employees are entitled to an additional day of leave for every 2 years of consecutive service, not including their first year. However, the statutory leave days earned annually are capped at 25 days.
Employee leave continues to accrue when the employee is away on childcare leave. Paid annual leave shall be forfeited if not used within 1 year. However, this shall not apply in cases where the employee has been prevented from using the employer's leave.
An employer may conclude an agreement with the employee requiring the employee to take paid leave on particular days.
Per the amended Labor Standards Act of South Korea, standard work hours are 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day. An employer can extend work hours in a particular week or day according to the employee's contract. However, the average work hours per week during a specific period (of not more than 2 weeks) must not exceed 40 hours, and work hours in any particular week shall not exceed 52 hours or 12 hours a day.
According to South Korea's Labor Standards Act (LSA), employers must provide pregnant employees with 90 days of maternity leave for a single pregnancy and 120 days for multiple pregnancies, and 100 days for premature births only when the baby requires hospitalization in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This leave can be taken before and after childbirth, but at least 45 days (or 60 days in the case of multiple births) must be used after childbirth.
Compensation is funded by the employer for 60 days (75 for multiple pregnancies), while the remaining days are paid from the Employment Insurance Fund, a state-run fund established by the Ministry of Employment and Labor under the Employment Insurance Act of 1993.
The 90 days of statutory leave include holidays and Sundays. Any period over the statutorily prescribed 90 days need not be considered paid leave. Although certain limitations exist, maternity leave must be allowed for premature births, miscarriages, and stillbirths.
Under the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act, up to 1 year of unpaid leave is provided to a parent with a child up to age 8.
Effective February 23, 2025, employees are also entitled to leave in case of a miscarriage or a stillbirth. They must provide their employers with a medical certificate from a medical institution, which includes the reason for the leave request, the date of the miscarriage or stillbirth, and the duration of the pregnancy. The duration of leave depends on the pregnancy period, ranging from 10 days to 90 days.
Effective January 1, 2026, the minimum wage is KRW 10,320 won per hour.
Apprentices who have been in an apprenticeship for less than 3 months are excluded from the minimum wage.
The Labor Standards Act of South Korea requires employers to pay wages to their employees at least once a month on a fixed day. This does not apply to extraordinary wages, allowances, or other similar payments.
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