Gyeonggi leads the way with 4.5-day workweek pilot

Gyeonggi Province is pushing forward with South Korea’s first pilot four-and-a-half-day workweek program aimed at improving people's work-life balance, quality of life, happiness and ideally, the falling birth rate.

Korea's most populous province has allocated an initial budget 250 million won ($186,971) for the program, part of an annual investment of 10 billion won pledged for the initiative.

In a press conference last Wednesday, Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon unveiled his plans to spearhead reducing working hours without any pay cuts at workplaces in the province, home to 26.6 percent of Korea's population. He pledged an annual investment of 10 billion won ($7.4 million) for the initiative.

The standard workweek system across the country, introduced in July 2018, consists of five days and a maximum of 52 hours per week: 40 regular work hours with a possible 12 hours of overtime.

Gyeonggi’s pilot project, the governor explained, involves 50 private companies and public organizations in the province experimenting with reduced working hours in three ways: some are working a four-day workweek every other week; some are adopting a 35-hour workweek; and some are working a half day every Friday. Participating companies can choose one of the options and the provincial government will cover the wage gap resulting from the reduction in working hours.

Once the 250 million-won budget is finalized with the approval of the provincial assembly, expected early next month, the five-month pilot for new working hours will commence at participating workplaces in October, according to provincial officials.

The pilot project is to help the government establish a baseline plan for expanding policy measures, such as payroll sizes and industrial sectors suitable or unsuitable for the new workweek system, as well as devising effective ways to encourage wider participation.

While some provincial council members from the conservative ruling People Power Party have criticized the lack of communication in the process of advancing the plan, the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Civil Servants Union has welcomed the pilot project, stating it hopes the reduction of working hours without pay cuts is expanded to all levels of society in the near future.