‘6 in 10 Koreans do overtime every other day without extra pay’

Korea’s salaried employees work an average of 2 1/2 days overtime per week, a poll showed Friday.

Employment-related portal JobKorea -- citing its recent survey of 1,013 office workers -- alleged that an average worker puts in 2 1/2 days of overtime per week. 

The survey also showed that only 37.7 percent of the respondents are compensated properly for the extra hours.

When asked whether “Overtime work should be taken for granted” 69.9 percent of the respondents said “No.” Also, 63.9 percent of the respondents said they work overtime involuntarily because of circumstances out of their control.

The reasons for overtime work given by the respondents were the nature of the work and the industry (43.9 percent), urgent tasks popping up unpredictably (38.6 percent) and company culture (25.8 percent).

(mjk625@heraldcorp.com)