How is overtime, night and holiday pay calculated in Korea?

At a workplace with 5 or more workers, every hour beyond 8 in a day or 40 in a week earns no less than 1.5 times your ordinary hourly rate. Any hour worked from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. adds another 50%, and work on a holiday is paid at 1.5 times for the first 8 hours and double after that. These extras can be added together in the same hour. At a workplace with 4 or fewer workers, the law does not require the extras, but you still have to be paid for all the time you put in.

Which hours count as overtime?

Overtime (연장근로) is counted against two limits at once: 8 hours in one day and 40 hours in one week, both without break time. If you pass either limit, the hours past it are overtime.

• Waiting time counts as work when you must stay where the employer can call you, for example waiting at the line for materials or for a truck to arrive.
• Compulsory morning meetings, safety briefings and changing into required protective clothing before the shift are often treated as working time too, if the employer requires them.
• A real break, when you may rest or leave as you like, does not count.

By agreement, overtime can be added up to 12 hours a week. Hours beyond that are a violation by the employer, but they are still hours you worked and must be paid.

When do the extras stack?

The night extra is separate from the overtime and holiday extras, so one hour can earn both. Multiply your ordinary hourly rate (통상시급) by:

These are minimums. A contract or company rule can promise more.

Is Saturday a holiday?

Usually not. Many Korean companies treat Saturday as an unpaid rest day (휴무일), not a holiday (휴일). Work on Saturday then earns the overtime rate only once your week has already reached 40 hours, not the holiday rate.

A holiday for this rule means your weekly paid day off, normally Sunday, plus the public holidays set by decree if the business employs 5 or more people. A holiday can be moved to a working day only through a written agreement with the workers' representative (근로자대표), so a manager saying "Sunday is a normal day this week" is not enough on its own.

A worked example

The wage below is invented to show the method. Assume an ordinary hourly rate of 12,000 won, a normal Monday to Friday week of 40 hours, and two extra blocks of work:

• Wednesday: 3 hours of overtime after the shift, the last of them after 10 p.m.
• Sunday, the weekly holiday: 9 hours of daytime work.

That 228,000 won comes on top of the regular weekly pay. If the employer paid only 12 hours x 12,000 = 144,000 won for the extra work, 84,000 won is missing in a single week. Over a year of similar weeks the gap passes 4 million won.

My salary is fixed. Is overtime already included?

Some contracts say the monthly pay "includes" a set amount of overtime, often shown as a fixed overtime line (고정연장수당) on the payslip. This kind of arrangement is not automatically illegal, but it has limits. Courts tend to reject it where working hours can easily be counted, such as factory shift work. And where it is valid, overtime you actually work beyond the covered amount must still be paid.

Compare the hours your fixed line is meant to cover with the hours you really worked. Your payslip (임금명세서) is supposed to show how each item was calculated, so ask for that breakdown if it is missing.

Can my employer give time off instead of money?

Only under a written agreement with the workers' representative (보상휴가제). Without that agreement, a supervisor cannot simply announce that overtime will be "paid back" with days off. Where such a system exists, it is generally understood that the time off should reflect the premium too, so 1 overtime hour is worth more than 1 hour of leave.

What if my workplace has 4 or fewer workers?

The daily and weekly hour limits and the overtime, night and holiday premiums are generally understood not to apply. Each hour still has to be paid, at least at the minimum wage under the Minimum Wage Act (최저임금법), and any extra rate written in your contract binds the employer.

Count carefully. Part-time workers and foreign workers count toward the number, and an employer who splits one business into several small ones on paper may still be treated as a single workplace. Farming, livestock and fishing jobs have their own exclusion from the hours rules.

How do I claim missing premiums?

1. Record start time, end time and breaks every day, with photos or messages if you can. 2. Mark which hours were after 10 p.m. and which fell on your weekly holiday. 3. Recalculate each week with the table above and compare with what was paid. 4. Ask the employer for the difference in writing, then file a complaint at the labor office covering your workplace (지방고용노동청) if they refuse.

Unpaid premiums are unpaid wages. From 8 October 2026, an employer who fails to pay them faces a criminal penalty of a prison term of no more than 5 years or a fine of no more than 50 million won. The claim lapses three years after each payday, so older weeks drop off month by month.

Next step

Take one recent payslip and one week of your own time records and run the calculation above. If the numbers do not match, we can check the gap and what can be claimed. Consultations are paid; when you contact us, a staff member will call you back and explain the fee.

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Rules applied

Labor Standards Act (근로기준법) Article 50 (8 hours a day, 40 a week, waiting time counts), Article 53(1) (up to 12 hours of overtime a week by agreement), Article 2(1)7 (a week is 7 days including holidays), Article 55 (weekly paid holiday; public holidays and substitution by written agreement), Article 56 (overtime and night premium of 50%; holiday premium of 50% up to 8 hours and 100% beyond), Article 57 (time off instead of premium by written agreement), Article 48(2) (payslip with items and calculation), Article 49 (3-year limit), Article 11 (5 or more workers), Article 63 (farming, livestock and fishing excluded), Article 107 (penalty for violating Article 56, in force 8 October 2026).

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