Not all South Koreans benefiting from cuts in work hours

On 1 July South Korea cut the maximum weekly work hours to 52, down from 68. But, says a report in The Guardian, the new regulation intended to combat long hours in Seoul’s steel and glass office towers has backfired for many doing manual or irregular labour. The National Assembly estimated that 150 000 labourers would face an average pay cut. South Korean workers have some of the longest working weeks among members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, behind only Mexico. Last year the average person worked 2 024 hours, or about 38.9 hours a week. And, the report says, this gruelling work environment has been blamed for a host of societal problems, from a low birth rate to plummeting productivity. Even with the cut in hours, South Koreans work about 340 more hours a year compared with workers in the UK and Australia – about nine additional standard work weeks – despite having relatively similar average incomes. They work about six additional weeks compared with counterparts in the US.