Minister Kim Younghoon: "Innovation Is Impossible with Long Working Hours... We Must Shift to Qualitative Labor"

Kim Younghoon, Minister of Employment and Labor, stated regarding the government's support for the introduction of the 4.5-day workweek that "it is now time to shift from quantitative input to qualitative labor."

In a field meeting on reducing actual working hours held at Jaedam Media in Mapo-gu, Seoul, this afternoon, Minister Kim said, "Long working hours and hierarchy-centered culture can no longer serve as drivers of innovation."

Minister Kim stressed, "As the tasks for reducing actual working hours agreed upon by labor, management, and government are leading to legislation, and on-site inquiries are continuing, the government will actively support small and medium-sized enterprises in firmly establishing these systems."

The Ministry of Employment and Labor's "Work-Life Balance+4.5 Project," which supports reductions in actual working hours at small and medium-sized enterprises, directly subsidizes labor costs for companies that reduce working hours, such as by adopting a 4.5-day workweek, without cutting wages. The core of the program is that if a priority-supported small or medium-sized enterprise with 20 or more employees shortens working hours through labor-management agreement without reducing wages, the government provides a subsidy of 200,000 to 600,000 won per month for each worker whose hours are reduced. If new employees are hired, an additional 600,000 to 800,000 won per person per month is provided.

Kim Younghoon, Minister of Employment and Labor, is delivering remarks at the 'Declaration to Take the First Step for Youth Employment' held at the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul on December 8, 2025. Photo by Kang Jinhyung

Jaedam Media, the first participating company, is pushing to introduce a 35-hour workweek (7 hours of work per day). The decision aims to prevent the loss of talent caused by long-working-hour practices and to enhance corporate competitiveness. The company plans to reduce working hours while maintaining or improving productivity through measures such as introducing a work automation platform, standardizing repetitive tasks, and operating core concentration hours. It intends to revise employment contracts and work rules to institutionalize the system, and to address work gaps through the introduction of collaboration systems and new hiring.

Youngjin Apparel Co., Ltd. in Busan and DYE Co., Ltd. in South Jeolla Province, which participated in the meeting, agreed on the need to reduce working hours, but cited work gaps and the burden of recruiting additional staff as practical difficulties, and requested expanded government support.

At the end of last year, labor, management, and government presented a roadmap through a joint declaration on reducing actual working hours, and related bills have been introduced and discussions on institutional improvements are underway. Based on communication with workplaces, the government plans to promote the spread of reduced actual working hours by providing institutional and administrative support in parallel.

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