[Takryucheongron] Korea Is Still a 'Long Working Hours Country'... Needs to Change with the Times

Professor Lee Seung-hyeop, Department of Sociology, Daegu University

The significance of the numbers 1967 and 1380 is considerable. As of last year, the annual working hours in South Korea were 1967 hours. Although the dishonor of being the country with the longest working hours in the world was passed to Mexico with 2137 hours, Korean society still remains among the top countries globally for long working hours. Among the OECD countries, Denmark has the shortest annual working hours, working only 1380 hours. Most OECD countries work around 1500 hours annually. Only Mexico, Greece (1949 hours), and South Korea exceed 1900 hours. Is South Korea a developed country?

In 1967, the average weekly working hours in South Korea were 58.8 hours according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor. The very fact that there is a debate about implementing the 52-hour workweek this year is absurd. The per capita national income was $157 in 1987, ranking 93rd worldwide. In 2019, it rose to $31,431 (according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)), ranking 28th globally. During the period from $157 to $31,431, Koreans worked up to 68 hours per week before the introduction of the 52-hour workweek in 2018. Are we truly prosperous?

Korean society still questions whether it is a developed country. Economically, it has already reached developed country status, but socially, it lacks confidence in considering itself as such, and the external perspective on Korean society is not positive either. Economic development must go hand in hand with social development. This process of development naturally involves growing pains.

Without innovating the low-wage, long-hour system, the development of Korean society is impossible, and furthermore, it becomes a shackle on economic development. Many experts point to low labor productivity and wage competition in most industries, except for some sectors, as reasons why the structural reform of the Korean economy has not been achieved.

Despite being aware for a long time of the 2% shortfall in competing with advanced countries like the United States, Japan, and Europe, and the pincer movement of China and developing countries chasing from behind, economic and industrial restructuring has not been well implemented. Low labor productivity is not simply a labor union issue, as some suggest. The unionization rate in South Korea barely exceeds 10%. There are no unions in the remaining 90% of industrial sectors. Not all of the 10% unionized workers have strong organizational power either.

The reason for low productivity, which hinders the advancement and technological innovation of the Korean economy and industry, lies in long working hours. Labor productivity is the output relative to input labor hours. Advanced countries work about 1380 hours or an average of 1500 hours but show higher labor productivity than South Korea. This means that working in a short, compressed, and focused manner is more efficient.

Time is money. The reason long working hours are emphasized in South Korea is because the hourly wage is low. Advanced countries work less but earn more. Isn't it time for us to at least work shorter hours, even if we don't earn more?

Reducing working hours to a maximum of 52 hours per week is not about respecting labor. It is about securing basic labor rights. Many people desire a life with rest and evenings. The diligent and faithful workers of the 1970s, who worked themselves to death from overwork in companies like family, no longer exist.

From next year, the grace period for workplaces with 50 to fewer than 300 employees will end, and the 52-hour workweek will be applied. It is rather late. There has been sufficient time to prepare. The argument to postpone the application of the 52-hour workweek again, using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse, is like the sigh of an old person who does not want to age in the face of passing time. The implementation of the 52-hour workweek is also an opportunity to resolve the chronic labor shortage in small and medium-sized enterprises.

Seunghyup Lee, Professor of Sociology, Daegu University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.