To many Koreans, using up all annual paid leaves is still a luxury

The year 2018 is nearing to an end but only one out of five salaried workers in South Korea has used up all of their annual paid leaves, survey showed Thursday.

According to a recent survey conducted by job search information provider Job Korea on 304 salaried workers, only 20.7 percent said they have used up all of their annual paid leaves this year. The percentage was significantly lower at 7.9 percent for those in mid-level manager positions. Workers with unused paid leaves had an average 5.7 days left to use this year, survey showed.

In general, 45.1 percent of the respondents said that they usually use all of their annual paid leaves while 29.3 percent about half, and 25.7 percent said they hardly go on annual leaves.

When asked about the reason for not being able to take paid leaves, 55.8 percent of the respondents said they are self-conscious that their peer workers would be under pressure to take care of extra work.

The survey also showed that workers are not given separate compensation for unused annual leaves with 59.5 percent responding that they disappear after the year-end without compensation. Only 30.2 percent said unused leaves are replaced with cash.

The latest result indicates that there seems to be still a long way to go for Korean workers to gain balance between work and personal life even after the current government under liberal President Moon Jae-in has introduced a number of pro-labor policies, including a reduction in maximum weekly work hours from 68 to 52 aimed to ensure more balanced life.

[¨Ï Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]