7 out of 10 Companies Take 5 Days Off for Chuseok... 62% Provide Bonuses

72.3% of Companies Implementing Chuseok Holidays This Year Offer '5-Day Leave'
61.8% of Companies Provide Chuseok Bonuses, Down 1.1%P from Last Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyewon] Among companies implementing Chuseok holidays this year, 7 out of 10 are taking a five-day break. Additionally, 60% of companies plan to provide Chuseok bonuses, according to a survey.

The Korea Employers Federation conducted a survey on the status of Chuseok holidays among 544 companies nationwide with five or more employees, revealing that 72.3% of companies implementing Chuseok holidays (98.2%) are taking a five-day break.

This year’s Chuseok holiday falls on Saturday (18th) and Sunday (19th), followed by three official Chuseok holidays (20th?22nd), making five days off the most common response at 72.3%. This was followed by six days or more (13.1%), three days or fewer (7.5%), and four days (7.1%).

Companies taking 'four days or fewer' off accounted for 14.6%, with the main reason being 'workload is not heavy, but working is unavoidable due to meeting deadlines' (52.9%). Companies taking 'six days or more' off accounted for 13.1%, with the most common reason being 'mandatory holiday implementation according to collective agreements or employment rules' (69.4%).

The proportion of companies planning to pay Chuseok bonuses was 61.8%, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points from last year (62.9%). The response 'paying at the same level as last year' was the highest at 95.0%, followed by 'paying less than last year' at 1.9%, and 'paying more than last year' at 3.1%.

Among companies paying Chuseok bonuses, the most common payment method was 'paid as regular bonuses' (70.2%), followed by 'paid as separate bonuses' (25.2%), and 'paid both as regular and separate bonuses' (4.6%). Notably, the proportion of companies paying separate bonuses was 30.1% for those with fewer than 300 employees, which is 24.8 percentage points higher than the 5.3% for companies with 300 or more employees.

Among responding companies, 47.3% said this year’s Chuseok business conditions are 'similar to last year.' Only 14.0% responded that conditions have 'improved,' while 38.6% said they have 'worsened,' which is relatively high.

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