47% of Small Businesses Pay Chuseok Bonuses... 616,000 Won Per Person

Korea Federation of SMEs Surveys 800 Small Businesses
Average Amount Needed for Chuseok Funds: 181.4 Million KRW

It was found that 47% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) plan to pay Chuseok bonuses.

47% of Small Businesses Pay Chuseok Bonuses... 616,000 Won Per Person

Gift fruit boxes are stacked at Cheongnyangni General Market in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, ahead of last year's Chuseok holiday. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The Korea Federation of SMEs announced the results of the '2024 SME Chuseok Fund Demand Survey' conducted from the 5th to the 16th among 800 SMEs on the 28th.

According to the survey, 47.3% of companies responded that they have plans to pay Chuseok bonuses. This is a slight decrease compared to last year's 48.3%. Those who answered 'no payment' accounted for 36.7%, and 'undecided' was 16.0%.

The level of bonus payment for proportional payments was 53.7% of the base salary, the same as last year. For fixed amount payments, the average this year was 616,000 KRW, higher than last year's 447,000 KRW.

Regarding additional Chuseok holidays, 85.6% of companies responded that they would only take holidays during the Chuseok public holidays (September 16?18). 14.4% of companies planned additional holidays beyond the public holidays, with an average of 0.3 additional days.

Compared to last year's Chuseok, 25.6% responded that their financial situation is difficult this Chuseok, which was higher than the 16.0% who said it was 'smooth.' Those who said 'no different from last year' accounted for 58.4%.

The main reasons for financial difficulties (multiple responses allowed) were 'poor sales and revenue' (72.2%), followed by 'rising prices of raw and subsidiary materials' (33.2%), 'increased labor costs' (24.9%), and 'delayed collection of sales proceeds' (15.1%).

The average amount needed for Chuseok funds this year was 181.4 million KRW. The average shortage compared to needed funds was 17.7 million KRW.

Measures to secure the insufficient Chuseok funds (multiple responses allowed) included 'early collection of delivery payments' (41.7%), 'no measures' (23.5%), 'payment deferral' (21.7%), and 'borrowing from financial institutions' (19.1%).

Choo Moon-gap, head of the Economic Policy Headquarters at the Korea Federation of SMEs, said, "The government's recent announcement of a new supply of 40 trillion KRW for Chuseok holiday funds is expected to help alleviate SMEs' financial difficulties," adding, "The government should actively support not only funding but also domestic demand activation and the mandatory introduction of the delivery payment linkage system so that SMEs can build self-sustainability."