Legal information

After one full year with at least 80 percent attendance you get 15 paid days off, and during your first year you earn one day for each month you did not miss a day. Days you were not allowed or not able to use turn into money, usually one day of ordinary pay per unused day, and that money is claimable like wages for three years. Foreign workers on a factory or farm schedule often never hear the word 연차 until they are leaving, which is exactly when the unused days should appear on the final pay.

How many days do I earn?

Days you were off because of a work injury or illness, or on maternity or parental leave, count as days present when the 80 percent is checked.

Two conditions sit underneath the table. The workplace must normally have five or more workers, and you must be scheduled 15 hours or more per week. Workers in farming, livestock and fishing are outside the working-hours chapter of the law, and annual leave is generally treated as outside it too, so there the contract decides.

When can I take the days?

Whenever you ask, unless your absence would seriously disrupt the business, in which case the employer can move the date but not cancel the leave. Leave is paid at your ordinary wage, or at your average wage if the workplace rules say so.

A trip home to see family is a normal use of annual leave. If the employer says "we will deduct that from your salary," ask whether your leave days have been counted first. From June 2027 the law will also let you take leave in hours rather than whole days, and it will say openly that an employer may not punish you for asking.

Do the days expire?

Yes, after one year. Days earned during your first year expire at the end of that first year; the 15 days you receive at the one-year mark last until the two-year mark, and so on. When a day expires unused, one of two things happens:

• The employer did not do the reminder procedure. The day converts to an allowance for unused leave (연차수당), paid with the next salary or at the latest on your final pay.
• The employer did the reminder procedure correctly. Written notice of your remaining days around six months before expiry, a request that you choose dates, and if you stay silent, a written assignment of dates about two months before expiry. If all of that was done in writing and you still did not take the days, the employer does not have to pay for them.

A verbal "use your leave" in the corridor is not the procedure. Ask to see the written notices if the employer claims you lost the days.

A worked example (invented numbers)

The wage below is made up. Say your contract pays 10,000 won an hour for 8-hour days, so one day of ordinary pay is 80,000 won.

A second case: you leave after 8 months and 10 days. Your first-year days are 8, one per full month with no absence. If you used none, 8 x 80,000 = 640,000 won should be on your final pay.

I am leaving. How do I check my final pay for this?

1. Count the months and years you worked and the days you actually took off with pay. 2. Ask for your leave record (연차 사용 내역). The employer keeps one. 3. Look at the final pay statement for a line marked 연차수당 or 미사용 연차. 4. If the line is missing or too small, ask in writing for the calculation. 5. If nothing changes, add it to a wage complaint; unused leave money counts as wages and is subject to the same three-year limit.

Unused leave allowance from the previous year also raises the average wage used for severance, so a missing 연차수당 line can shrink two payments at once.

Next step

Before you sign a final settlement, write down your start date, your total leave used, and your daily pay, and compare with the figures above. Consultations are paid; when you contact us, a staff member will call you back and explain the fee.

법무법인 대한중앙
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Rules applied

Labor Standards Act (근로기준법) Article 60(1) (15 days after one year with 80 percent attendance), Article 60(2) (one day per full month in the first year or under 80 percent), Article 60(4) (extra days from the third year, 25-day cap), Article 60(5) (timing and pay for leave), Article 60(6) (injury and maternity periods count as attendance), Article 60(7) (expiry after one year, employer's fault exception), Article 61 (reminder procedure), Article 11 (5 or more workers), Article 63 (farming, livestock, fishing), Article 49 (3-year limit). Amended Article 60(5) and (9) take effect 10 June 2027.

This is general information, not legal advice. Every case is different.