"Working Without Pay"... One in Three Office Workers Do 'Gonggan Ya-geun' for Free

Survey Results by Jikganggapjil119 and Others
1 in 3 Employees Receive No Meal Allowance or Substitute Leave

About half of South Korean office workers work overtime on weekday evenings or holidays, but more than half of them do not receive proper overtime pay.

On the 2nd, the civic group Workplace Bullying 119 and the Office Finance Ubuntu Foundation announced the results of a survey conducted by the public opinion research firm Embrain Public. The survey was conducted from the 3rd to the 10th of last month, targeting 1,000 office workers. According to the survey, 50.9% (509 people) of respondents answered "yes" to the question of whether they usually work overtime on weekdays or holidays.

Among workers who work overtime, 53.2% reported working an average of "6 hours or less" of overtime per week, followed by 33.2% who worked "more than 6 hours but 12 hours or less." Notably, 13.5% of workers reported working overtime exceeding 12 hours, which is prohibited by law.

When asked whether they receive overtime pay, 41.3% (210 people) said they do, while 58.7% (299 people) said they do not, indicating that more workers do not receive overtime pay. The proportion of workers not receiving overtime pay was relatively higher among vulnerable groups such as non-union members (62.0%), employees at workplaces with fewer than 5 employees (73.6%), and workers earning less than 1.5 million won per month (80.0%).

Furthermore, 34.1% of workers reported receiving no compensation at all instead of overtime pay, revealing that more than one in three office workers effectively work "free overtime." When asked what kind of compensation they received instead of overtime pay, responses included "comprehensive wage system implemented" (27.4%), "partial payment" (18.4%), "only transportation or meal expenses paid" (13.4%), and "compensatory leave" (6.7%).

Regarding the average time workers spend at the workplace including break times, 42.3% answered "9 hours or less," which was the most common response, followed by 34.1% who said "more than 9 hours but 10 hours or less," and 23.6% who said "more than 10 hours."