May 6, 2025
SEOUL – Government data showed Thursday that 15 percent of all wage workers in South Korea had flexible work schedules as of August last year, with nearly half of the remaining workers saying they wish to have such arrangements, too.
The number of workers with flexible work arrangements decreased by 0.6 percentage point compared to the same month in 2023, according to Statistics Korea. The figure for regular workers, or permanent employees, was 20.1 percent, marking an on-year increase of 0.6 percentage point. Non-regular workers, however, dropped 2.2 percentage points to 6.9 percent.
The respondents with flexible work schedules were asked about the specific types of arrangements they had, with multiple responses allowed: 35 percent said they can choose when to start and finish their workday, as long as they met the required daily and weekly hours. Those working under a system that requires longer hours during busy periods and allows shorter hours when workloads are lighter, amounted to 29.5 percent.
About 25.4 percent said their companies allow fully-flexible work arrangements, in which workers get to choose their weekly and daily work hours and when they start and finish work, as long as they fulfill the mandated hours for a designated period of up to a month by law.
The percentage of those working remotely or from home and those working under a shortened work system were 15.9 percent and 12 percent, respectively. In a shortened work system, work hours are reduced to 15-30 hours a week as opposed to 40 regular work hours.
Of the wage workers who did not have flexible working arrangements at the time of the government survey, 48.1 percent said they wish to have such arrangements in the future, marking an on-year increase of 1.1 percent.
Some 34 percent said they wish for a fully-flexible work schedule, 29.4 percent sought to have shifting work hours depending on how busy the company is, and 25.2 percent said they wish to work under shortened work systems.
Flexible work ratio in Korea far lower than Europe; many workers here believe it to be more productive
A study published last week showed that the number of workers with children that have flexible work arrangements here amounts to around one-third of levels recorded in European Union countries.
Just 21.9 percent of Korean women and 17.9 percent of men raising young children have some sort of flexible work arrangement, compared to over 60 percent of women and nearly 58 percent of women in the EU countries, according to the research published by Dr. Jung Sung-mi of the Korean Women’s Development Institute.
Studies indicate that many Korean workers believe flexible work systems are more productive than regular setups. According to the Korea Labor Institute report on Koreans’ economic activities in 2022, 53.1 percent of those who experienced a system in which they freely chose work hours while meeting the daily required hours, said it is more productive than regular working arrangements. Respondents who said there is no notable difference amounted to 40.8 percent, while 6.1 percent said the system is less productive.
Among 41.8 percent of those who experienced fully-flexible work arrangements said it was more productive, and 34.7 percent who worked remotely said it was more productive than regular work arrangements.