Most offers arrive in a chat message or a short call, and the contract arrives later, in Korean, with a request to sign by tomorrow. This is the moment when learners who can read a menu and follow a lesson suddenly cannot read the page that decides their pay. We want you to be able to read it, so this story goes line by line. It is information, not legal advice. For a real dispute, the Ministry of Employment and Labor runs a consultation line on 1350, which its guidance page lists.
A word on how sure we are. Some of what follows is official and some is not, and each paragraph says which. Where the law's own text matters we point you to the government's Easy Law site, but we read it through search summaries and not the statute itself, and we say so. A few points we could not source at all; we mark them unverified and ask you to confirm them before you rely on them.
What the contract must say
Korean labour law, in Article 17 of the Labor Standards Act, requires an employer to state certain working conditions in writing and hand you a copy, and electronic documents count. The list includes how your pay is built, calculated and paid, the working hours that are set in the contract, the paid weekly rest day, and annual paid leave. The Easy Law summary says this applies to workplaces with four or fewer employees too. The same page mentions fines for breaking the rule, but we could not tell whether they are criminal fines or administrative ones, so we give no amount.
| Item | Korean to look for | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Pay, built from parts | 임금 (구성항목, 계산방법, 지급방법) | Which parts are base pay, which are allowances, and how and when it is paid |
| Contract working hours | 소정근로시간 | Daily start and finish, breaks, hours per week |
| Weekly paid rest day | 유급주휴일 | Which day, and that it is paid |
| Annual paid leave | 연차유급휴가 | Stated in the contract, not just promised |
| Your own copy | 교부 | That you receive a signed copy, in print or electronic |
Based on a government legal-information summary of Article 17, which we read through search summaries and not as statute text.
The practical rule is simple: never sign a page you have not been given in a form you can keep. If the file is in Korean only, ask for an English or bilingual copy as well, and check that both say the same thing about pay. If they differ, ask which one governs before you sign.
Probation
Many Korean contracts start with a probation period called 수습. A press report on the minimum-wage rules says an employer may pay 90 percent of the minimum wage during probation only if the contract is for at least a year, only during the first three months of probation, and only if the job is not simple manual labour. By our arithmetic that comes to 9,288 won an hour at the 2026 rate of 10,320 won. We did not check the decree itself, so confirm the conditions before you accept a reduced wage. If your contract says probation but is silent on the rest, ask.
The all-inclusive wage, 포괄임금제
This is the clause that surprises people most. Under a 포괄임금제, the employer pays one fixed amount that is said to include overtime, night and holiday pay, so extra hours do not raise your pay. Whether such a clause is valid depends on the case. The explanations we found say that courts look at whether the hours and the amount covered are made clear, but we could not read a court decision, so we will not tell you what is or is not legal. We label it unverified.
Hours, the 52-hour week and leave
The legal week is 40 hours plus up to 12 hours of overtime, which is the 52-hour week people mention. Since a January 2024 ruling by the labour ministry, as reported in the press, the limit is judged by the week. We read this in a news report, not the ruling. Overtime, night and holiday work carry a pay premium set by law. We have not checked the current rate in the statute, so check it yourself or ask; we leave the number out on purpose.
For annual leave, a statute summary says a worker who attends at least 80 percent of the first year gets 15 days, a worker in the first year gets one day for each full month of attendance, and the total rises by one day every two years, up to a cap of 25 days. This comes from a community site that summarises the law, not the legal text, so we ask you to check it before relying on it. A survey by the group Gapjil 119 reported in December 2025 found that 37.9 percent of the 1,000 workers asked had used fewer than six days of leave in 2025, a reminder that having leave on paper and using it are different things. That is a civil-society survey, reported in the press.
Minimum wage and weekly holiday pay
The 2026 minimum wage is 10,320 won an hour. For a 40-hour week with the paid weekly rest day included, which the ministry counts as 209 hours a month, that is 2,156,880 won a month. It is the same for every industry. We read the ministry's own release, so this is official. If your hourly rate or your monthly pay divided by 209 comes out lower, something is wrong, so ask.
Weekly holiday pay, 주휴수당, is an extra paid day for people who work at least 15 hours a week and attend every scheduled day that week. A government news summary gives a worked example: three hours of pay at the minimum wage, which is 30,960 won for a 15-hour week. Many part-time workers miss it, so see whether it is written into your pay line.
- 10,320원
- 2026 minimum wage per hour, same in every industry
- 2,156,880원
- 2026 minimum wage per month for a 40-hour week with paid rest day (209 hours)
- 1 year
- continuous service needed for severance pay, with at least 15 hours a week
Severance pay
Severance pay, 퇴직금, is owed to someone who has worked continuously for at least one year and at least 15 hours a week. The Easy Law summary gives 30 days of average wage for each year of service. Short contracts matter here: a six-month contract that is renewed again and again may or may not count as continuous, and we could not source how that is judged. If you plan to stay close to a year, ask when your service started and how a renewal affects it.
The four social insurances
Employees pay part of four insurances out of each paycheck: the national pension, health insurance, long-term care, and employment insurance. Press reports give the 2026 rates for the employee's share as follows. These come from news articles and a blog, not from the agencies' own notices, so we label the table media and ask you to check the figures with the agencies. Workers' accident insurance is paid by the employer.
| Insurance | Employee share | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| National pension | 4.75 percent | Total 9.5 percent, split between worker and employer |
| Health insurance | 3.595 percent | Total 7.19 percent, split between worker and employer |
| Long-term care | About 0.9448 percent of income | 13.14 percent of the health premium; reports differ |
| Employment insurance | 0.9 percent | The unemployment-benefit portion; a blog source |
Media and community sources, not agency notices. Check with the National Pension Service (1355) and the health insurer before you rely on the rates.
As an example of how the rates work, and only as our own calculation: on a monthly pay of 3 million won, those four items come to about 291,520 won. The pension is 142,500, health 107,850, care about 14,170 and employment insurance 27,000. Real deductions depend on the amount the agencies count as your income and on caps and floors that change, so use this as a size estimate and not a payslip.
From annual salary to monthly pay
Offers are often quoted as an annual salary, 연봉. There is no legal formula for turning that into a monthly amount, and the usual practice is to divide by twelve, which is a plain calculation and not a rule. What matters is what is inside the number. Ask whether bonuses, performance pay and allowances are inside the annual figure, and which parts are taxable. A tax-free meal allowance, for example, was not counted toward the E-7 salary requirement in a case a visa agent describes, so the label on each part can matter beyond tax.
| You see | Ask |
|---|---|
| 연봉 (annual salary) | Does it include bonus and fixed overtime? Divided by twelve, what is the monthly amount before tax? |
| 기본급 (base pay) | What share of monthly pay is base, and what is allowances? |
| 수당 (allowances) | Which are always paid and which depend on conditions? |
| 세전 / 세후 | Is the number before or after tax and insurance? |
Our checklist, not a legal text.
Documents you may be asked for
Two papers come up in job and visa processes. A 재직증명서 is a certificate from an employer that you work there, and a 원천징수영수증 is a receipt showing the income and tax withheld in a year. We explain them in plain words from general knowledge, and we could not find an official definition in this round of research, so treat the explanations as unverified and ask the issuing office what exactly it will produce. They matter if you move to another visa, apply for a loan or rent a flat, because other offices ask for them.
Checking an employer before you sign
There is a published list of employers who have repeatedly failed to pay wages. Under the Labor Standards Act, a summary of Article 43-2 says an employer can be named after two or more convictions in three years together with at least 30 million won unpaid within a year. A news report said that 187 employers were published on 27 April 2026. The summaries differ in detail, so read them as an outline. A broadcaster's business report says some private portals let you check a business registration number against the list through Work24.
Checking that an employer pays into employment insurance is also sensible, because that is how you would claim unemployment benefits later. We found a government source that mentions the insurance's website, but not a clear step-by-step way for a foreigner to check, so we mark the method unverified and ask you to confirm in person or on the ministry's line, 1350. For whether foreign workers qualify for unemployment benefits at all, the answers we found depended on your visa and were not current, so we do not give one.
Before you sign: a checklist
| Check | Yes / ask | Source tag |
|---|---|---|
| I have a written copy that states pay parts, hours, rest day and leave | Ask if any is missing | official |
| Monthly pay divided by 209 is at least 10,320 won an hour | Ask if lower | official |
| Probation, if any, has a stated length, and pay is at least the reduced minimum allowed | Ask for the length and the pay | media |
| Fixed overtime clause: I know how many hours it covers | Ask in writing | unverified |
| Annual leave is stated and my start date is clear | Ask | community |
| Severance: I know when my service counts from | Ask | official |
| I know my share of the four insurances and who pays workers' accident cover | Check the rates with the agencies | media |
| Annual salary: I know what is inside it and what is taxable | Ask | community |
| The employer is not on the arrears list, and the contract says which insurances they join | Check yourself | media |
Source tags show how confident we are in the rule behind each line, not whether your contract passes.
A contract in a second language will always feel like a test. It does not have to. Every line above is a question, and a polite question before signing is normal and safe. A Korean clause may be short, but you can read its heading, find the number, and ask what the number includes. That is most of what a first reading needs.