Annual paid leave in Korea — you earn a day a month before your first year is up

The most common thing foreign workers in Korea are told about leave is that it starts after one year. That is not what Article 60 says. Leave accrues from your second month.

Short answer

80% attendance over a year        15 days
Under a year, or under 80%        1 day for each full month worked without absence
3+ years of continuous service    +1 day every 2 years, capped at 25 days total
Under 15 hours a week (4-wk avg)  Articles 55 and 60 do not apply at all
Employer who withholds it         up to 2 years' imprisonment or a 20 million won fine

The text

Article 60(1):

The employer shall grant 15 days of paid leave to a worker who has attended not less than 80 percent of the days in one year.

Article 60(2):

The employer shall grant one day of paid leave for each month of full attendance to a worker whose period of continuous service is less than one year, or who attended less than 80 percent of the days in one year.

Paragraph 2 is the one that gets skipped. If you are on a one-year contract, this is the paragraph that actually governs your leave for most of it.

Article 60(4):

For a worker with three or more years of continuous service, the employer shall add one day for every two years of continuous service exceeding the first year. The total, including added leave, shall not exceed 25 days.

Days that count as attendance even though you were not there

Paragraph 6 treats the following as attendance:

1  time off due to occupational injury or disease
2  maternity leave under Article 74(1)–(3)
3  parental leave
4  hours reduced under shortened working hours for childcare
5  hours reduced under shortened working hours during pregnancy

Item 1 matters more than it looks. Time off for a work injury cannot be counted as absence to push you below the 80% line. Employers reluctant to file an industrial accident claim often make this second mistake as well — see work injury compensation.

When you take it, and when it disappears

Article 60(5) — leave must be granted at the time the worker requests, paid at the ordinary or average wage set in the work rules. The employer may change the timing only where granting it then would cause serious disruption to business operations.

That is an exception, not a general power. A workplace where management always picks the dates is not relying on this clause so much as ignoring it.

Article 60(7) — leave lapses if not taken within one year. But the same sentence adds: not where the worker was unable to use it due to the employer's fault. If your requests were refused, the lapse argument is much weaker.

(The law.go.kr page shows Article 60 twice; the second version adds a right to take leave in hourly units, added 9 June 2026. We have not confirmed its commencement date, so it is not covered here.)

Under 15 hours a week, none of this applies

Article 18(3):

Articles 55 and 60 shall not apply to a worker whose contractual working hours average less than 15 hours a week over four weeks (or over the period worked, if shorter).

Both the weekly paid holiday and annual leave drop out together. The flip side is that at 15 hours or more, part-time workers do get annual leave — which surprises a lot of students working part-time on a D-2 or D-4 permit.

Note the averaging period: four weeks, not a single week. One quiet week does not put you below the line.

Article 18(1) also requires a part-timer's conditions to be set in proportion to the hours of a comparable full-time worker doing the same kind of work.

Weekly paid holiday

Article 55(1) — the employer shall guarantee at least one paid holiday a week, on average. It is separate from annual leave, and it uses the same 15-hour threshold.

Penalty

Article 110(1) — violating Article 55 or Article 60(1), (2), (4) or (5) carries up to 2 years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 20 million won.

Frequently asked questions

I am on a one-year contract. Do I get leave? Yes — one day for each month of full attendance, under Article 60(2).

Can my employer pay me instead of giving the days? Article 57's compensatory leave scheme runs the other way (leave instead of pay) and requires a written agreement with the workers' representative. Converting your annual leave to cash unilaterally is not that mechanism. Whether unused leave must be paid out when you resign depends on the case — ask 1350 rather than assuming.

I was off with a work injury. Does that ruin my 80%? No. Paragraph 6(1) counts it as attendance.

My leave requests were all refused, and now the year is over. Read Article 60(7) again — leave does not lapse where the employer's fault prevented you from using it. Keep the refusals.

Sources

Labor Standards Act (근로기준법)
   [in force 2026-08-20] [Act No. 21373, amended 2026-02-19]
   Art. 18(1)(3) — part-time workers, the 15-hour threshold
   Art. 55 (weekly paid holiday) · Art. 57 (compensatory leave)
   Art. 60 (annual paid leave), paras 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7
   Art. 110 (penalties)
   https://www.law.go.kr/법령/근로기준법

Ministry of Employment and Labour: 1350