Workers Use an Average of 9.9 Days of Annual Leave... 1.4 Days More Than Last Year

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Culture & Tourism Institute Announce 2018 Worker Vacation Survey Results
SME Workers Use 10.5 Days Annual Leave, Decrease in Concentrated Summer Vacations
Annual Leave Usage Rate 72.5%

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The average number of annual leave days used by regular employees in South Korea in 2018 was 9.9 days. This is an increase of 1.4 days compared to 2017 (8.5 days). During this period, the annual leave usage rate was recorded at 72.5%.

On the 5th, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced the results of the 'Worker Vacation Survey' conducted by the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute at the Government Seoul Office. In 2018, small and medium-sized enterprises with 10 to fewer than 99 employees used an average of 10.5 days of annual leave. This is an increase of 1.9 days compared to 2017 (8.6 days). The overall annual leave usage rate during this period also increased by 13.3 percentage points compared to 59.2% in 2017.

The survey results showed that workers mainly used their annual leave for rest (33.7%), travel (32.1%), and household chores (18.6%). Compared to 2017, rest increased by 4.9 percentage points and travel increased by 0.6 percentage points. Looking at the monthly status, the use of annual leave in July and August decreased by 5.2 percentage points from 36.8% in 2017 to 31.6% in 2018. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism evaluated this as "the concentrated demand for summer vacation appears to have been dispersed."

The reasons for not being able to use leave included lack of substitute personnel (22.1%), receiving annual leave allowance (22.0%), and excessive workload (12.1%). On the other hand, due to the spread of social awareness emphasizing 'work-life balance,' cases of not using leave because of concern about supervisors' eyes (6.5%) or the organization's regulatory atmosphere (2.2%) significantly decreased compared to 2017.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Yang-woo is announcing the changes in artist welfare in 2020, the results of the National Culture and Arts Activity Survey, the National Leisure Activity Survey, and the Worker Vacation Survey at the Government Seoul Office on the 5th.
[Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]

Workers' satisfaction with leave was 63.5 points, an increase of 3.3 points compared to 2017 (60.2 points), and workers in companies with 20 to fewer than 99 employees showed higher satisfaction with leave than the average. This survey was conducted through one-on-one interviews from October 7 to November 24 last year with 5,000 regular employees from 2,000 businesses with 5 or more workers engaged in industrial activities across 17 cities and provinces.

Meanwhile, on the same day, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also announced the results of the nationally approved statistics on the National Culture and Arts Activity Survey and the National Leisure Activity Survey. According to these, the average daily leisure time of Koreans over the past year was 3.5 hours on weekdays and 5.4 hours on holidays (28.3 hours per week), which increased by 0.4 hours compared to 2016 (0.2 hours and 0.1 hours compared to 2018, respectively).

The average monthly leisure expenditure was 156,000 won, an increase of about 14.7% or 20,000 won compared to 2016 (5,000 won compared to 2018). The attendance rate for cultural and artistic events over the past year was also 81.8%, up 3.5 percentage points from 78.3% in 2016 and 0.3 percentage points compared to 2018.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated, "We plan to announce the '2nd Basic Plan for Cultural Promotion' and the '2nd Basic Plan for Regional Cultural Promotion' to promote policies for revitalizing national culture and leisure in the future."