Annual leave in Korea is guaranteed by law: 15 paid days after a full year of work with at least 80% attendance, rising to a maximum of 25 days. Using it is a different matter. In the government’s 2025 Worker Vacation Survey, covering 2024, workers used 79.4% of the leave they were granted, the highest since the survey began in 2018. That still means about one day in five goes unused.
Last updated: October 31, 2026
Key takeaways
- The legal minimum is 15 days after one year at 80% attendance, plus 1 day for every 2 years beyond the first year after three years of service, capped at 25 days.
- In 2024, workers at firms with five or more employees were granted 16.7 days on average and used 79.4% of them.
- An employer can avoid paying for unused leave only by following the written “leave promotion” procedure in Article 61.
- Leave runs out after one year unless the employer prevented you from using it.
Annual leave at a glance: Annual leave in Korea starts at 15 paid days after a full year with at least 80% attendance and rises to a maximum of 25 days. Workers used 79.4% of their annual leave in 2024. An employer can avoid paying for unused annual leave only by following the written promotion procedure, and annual leave normally expires after one year. This guide explains the rules and why taking annual leave is still hard.
How much annual leave in Korea do you get?
The Labor Standards Act, in force as of October 8, 2026, sets the rules in Article 60:
| Situation | Paid leave |
|---|---|
| 1 year of service and at least 80% attendance | 15 days |
| Under 1 year of service, or under 80% attendance | 1 day for each fully attended month |
| 3 or more years of service | 15 days plus 1 day for every 2 years beyond the first year |
| Maximum | 25 days |
Some practical points from the text of the law:
- You are entitled to take leave when you ask for it. Your employer can move the dates only if your leave would cause a serious disruption to the business.
- Time off for work injuries, maternity leave, childcare leave and some reduced hours counts as attendance when calculating the 80%.
- Leave expires after one year unless you could not use it because of the employer’s own fault.
- An employer and a worker representative can agree in writing to replace leave days with specific days off for everyone (Article 62), which is how some firms set company-wide holidays.
Public holidays are separate from annual leave, and some employers add extra days beyond the legal minimum.
How many days do Koreans really use?
The 2025 Worker Vacation Survey, run by the culture ministry and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, covered 5,096 regular employees at 2,041 workplaces with five or more regular employees. For 2024:
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Average days granted | 16.8 | 16.7 |
| Share of leave used | 77.8% | 79.4% |
| Took five or more days in a row | 9.0% | 9.8% |
Earlier surveys by different bodies gave lower figures, and they used different methods, so do not compare old and new numbers directly. The direction of the more recent data is up. The same ministry survey found that travel was the top use of leave (35%), that August was the busiest month (15.3% of leave days), and that leave use was spreading more evenly through the year. Average spending on leave in 2024 was 2.212 million won (about US$1,580).
The survey also found that freedom to take leave at work was what employees most wanted in order to use more. Scores for being contacted about work during leave (42.4 out of 100) and working during leave (29.4) stayed low, which the ministry read as a sign that work and leave are still not cleanly separated.
Why is annual leave in Korea hard to take?
The survey measures how much leave people take, not why they skip it, so these are common explanations rather than measured shares:
- Hierarchy. Asking a manager for leave can feel like a statement about commitment (see why Korean coworkers use job titles instead of names).
- No cover. In a small team with no backup, a day off lands on colleagues.
- Long hours. Where staying late is normal, a day off can feel like stepping out of the team’s pace.
- Career ladder. The entry-cohort system rewards visible loyalty (see what a Korean entry cohort, or gisu, is).
What is the leave promotion system?
Under Article 61, an employer can avoid paying for unused leave only if it follows this procedure:
- Within 10 days around six months before the leave expires, the employer must tell each worker in writing how many days remain and ask them to say when they will take them.
- If the worker does not give dates within 10 days, the employer must set the dates in writing no later than two months before expiry.
If the employer follows both steps and the worker still does not take the leave, the employer does not have to compensate for it. If the employer skips the procedure, the unused days are treated as the employer’s fault, and you may have grounds to claim pay for them. There is a shorter version for first-year leave (notice at three months and one month before the end of year one).
What does annual leave in Korea mean for you?
If you work in a Korean company:
- Ask in writing. Email or the HR system leaves a record.
- Keep the promotion notices. If your employer sends one, read the dates carefully. If it never does, unused days may be payable.
- Time it with holidays. Many Koreans use leave around Seollal or Chuseok (see what Seollal is) when most colleagues are away.
- First year. You earn 1 day per fully attended month, so you will not have 15 days at the start.
- Small workplace. If your employer has fewer than five regular employees, the leave rules may not apply, so check the contract.
- Questions: the Ministry of Employment and Labor counselling line is 1350.
If you are a visitor, annual leave explains why Korean holiday travel clusters in August and around public holidays: flights and hotels fill at those times.
Common mistakes: assuming you can take any day you like (the employer can move dates for serious disruption), assuming unused leave is always paid (not if the employer followed Article 61), and missing that leave expires after a year.
Worked examples: how many days will you have?
Using the rule in the table above (15 days from one year, plus one day for every two years beyond the first year after three years, capped at 25), the entitlement grows slowly:
| Years of service | Leave per year |
|---|---|
| 1 or 2 | 15 days |
| 3 or 4 | 16 days |
| 5 or 6 | 17 days |
| 7 or 8 | 18 days |
| 11 or 12 | 20 days |
| 21 or more | 25 days (the cap) |
These figures are arithmetic from the law’s formula and assume at least 80% attendance. Two quick cases:
- A first-year employee who attends every month earns about one day per fully attended month, so by the first anniversary the total is still well below 15. After one full year at 80% attendance, the 15-day entitlement starts.
- A worker with five years of service gets 15 plus 2 extra days, or 17 days. Compared with the survey average of 16.7 days granted in 2024, that is close to the typical amount.
How does annual leave in Korea compare with the UK, Japan and the US?
The rules differ in design as well as size, so the table is a rough guide rather than a ranking.
| Country | What the official source says |
|---|---|
| South Korea | 15 days after one full year at 80% attendance, rising to 25 (Labor Standards Act, Article 60) |
| United Kingdom | Almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, which is 28 days for a five-day week; an employer can count bank holidays as part of it (GOV.UK) |
| Japan | 10 days after six months of continuous work and 80% attendance, rising to 20 days from 6.5 years (Labor Standards Act, Article 39) |
| United States | The Fair Labor Standards Act does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations; these are matters of agreement between employer and employee (US Department of Labor) |
Two cautions. First, the UK total may include bank holidays, while Korea’s 15 to 25 days are separate from public holidays, so the UK’s 28 days and Korea’s 15 days are not like for like. Second, a legal entitlement is not the same as days actually taken. The Korean survey shows 79.4% of granted leave was used in 2024, and the table says nothing about use in the other countries.
How do you ask for leave? A step list
- Check how many days you have. Count your years of service and use the table above, or ask HR.
- Ask in writing, by email or the HR system, so there is a record.
- Give a date and a handover. The law lets an employer move your dates only if leave would seriously disrupt the business, so a clear plan makes a refusal harder to justify.
- Keep any promotion notice. If your employer sends the Article 61 notice, reply within 10 days with your dates.
- If your employer refuses or never sends a notice, call the Ministry of Employment and Labor counselling line on 1350 and ask what applies to your case.
A timeline example for the leave promotion system
Suppose your leave for the year would expire on December 31. Under the procedure described above, the employer’s written notice would come around the end of June, give you 10 days to say when you will take the remaining days, and, if you do not reply, the employer must set the dates in writing no later than two months before expiry, about the end of October. These dates are an illustration of the stated periods, not an official calendar, and a workplace that follows a different leave year will have different dates.
More common mistakes
- Confusing public holidays with annual leave. They are separate in Korea.
- Waiting until the last month. The leave promotion deadlines come well before the end of the year.
- Not keeping the written notice. It is the record that decides whether unused days are payable.
- Comparing the Korean 15 days with a country’s total that includes bank holidays.
FAQ
How many paid vacation days do workers get in Korea?
15 days after a full year with at least 80% attendance, plus one more day for every two years beyond the first year after three years of service, up to 25 days. In the first year you get 1 day for each fully attended month.
Is unused annual leave paid out in Korea?
It depends. If the employer followed the Article 61 promotion procedure, it does not have to pay for unused leave. If it did not, unused days may be payable.
Do Koreans use all their annual leave?
Not all. In the 2025 survey, covering 2024, workers used 79.4% of their granted leave on average.
What is the leave promotion system in Korea?
A legal procedure in which the employer notifies workers in writing of unused leave and asks them to schedule it, then designates dates if they do not. It protects employers from paying for unused leave.
Do foreign workers get annual leave in Korea?
The Labor Standards Act applies to employees in Korea regardless of nationality, though workplaces with fewer than five employees are treated differently. Check your contract.
How does annual leave in Korea compare with the UK?
The UK gives almost all workers 5.6 weeks of paid holiday (28 days for a five-day week), and an employer can count bank holidays within it. Korea’s 15 to 25 days are separate from public holidays, so the totals are not directly comparable.
Does the United States require paid vacation?
The US Department of Labor says the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations. These are matters of agreement between employer and employee.
Sources and further reading
Checked October 31, 2026.
- Ministry of Government Legislation: Labor Standards Act, Articles 60 to 62 (Korean, law.go.kr)
- Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Culture and Tourism Institute: 2025 Worker Vacation Survey results, December 26, 2025 (Korean, as reproduced by Public News Network)
- Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism: Worker Vacation Survey page (Korean)
- Ministry of Employment and Labor (English site)
- GOV.UK: Holiday entitlement
- Japanese Law Translation: Labor Standards Act, Article 39 (annual paid leave)
- U.S. Department of Labor: Vacation Leave