Korea Minimum Wage 2027: ₩10,700 an Hour, Weekly Holiday Pay and the Probation Rule Every Part-Timer Should Know

If you're on a working holiday in Korea, studying here with a part-time job, or about to take your first café or convenience-store shift, you've probably seen the headline: Korea's minimum wage goes up to ₩10,700 an hour in 2027. What those short videos skip is the part that actually decides your paycheck: a weekly paid-holiday allowance most workers abroad have never heard of, the 15-hour rule that switches it on or off, and when an employer's "it's 90% because you're on probation" is simply not allowed. We cross-checked Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL), the official minimum wage notice, MOEL's 1350 counseling cases and the government's Easy Law portal so you can check your own pay before your first payday.

1. The short answer: ₩10,700 an hour, ₩2,236,300 a month

MOEL finalized the 2027 minimum wage at ₩10,700 per hour on August 5, 2026. That's ₩380 (3.7%) more than the 2026 rate of ₩10,320, and it applies to work done from January 1, 2027. Dollar figures below are rough conversions at about ₩1,400 per U.S. dollar.

	2026	2027
Hourly	₩10,320	₩10,700 (≈ $7.60)
Daily (8 hours)	₩82,560	₩85,600 (≈ $61)
Monthly (209 hours)	₩2,156,880	₩2,236,300 (≈ $1,600)

Image: Ministry of Employment and Labor card news "2027 Minimum Wage ₩10,700/hour," published on Korea.kr on August 6, 2026 (original). The Korean text reads "converted to a monthly wage: ₩10,700 × 209 hours = ₩2,236,300, based on 40 contracted hours a week."

Why 209 hours and not 174? Because Korea pays full-time workers for one paid rest day every week. 40 working hours plus 8 paid holiday hours, averaged over a month, comes to 209. So the ₩2,236,300 monthly figure already includes that holiday pay. It's also before tax: national insurance and income tax come out of it.

The minimum wage applies to every workplace with at least one employee, in every industry, whether you're full-time, on a contract, or a part-timer (in Korean, an alba). The only exceptions are businesses employing only live-in relatives, domestic workers, and seafarers under the Seafarers Act. Tiny shops with fewer than five staff are not exempt.

2. Weekly holiday pay (주휴수당): the bonus most foreign workers miss

Korea's weekly holiday allowance (juhyu sudang) is paid on top of your hourly wage when (1) your contract averages 15 hours or more a week over four weeks and (2) you showed up for every scheduled shift that week (Labor Standards Act, Articles 18 and 55). It applies at small businesses too.

The catch: it's your contract hours, not the hours you actually worked

According to MOEL's 1350 counseling guidance, if your contract says 14 hours a week, you don't qualify even if you actually worked 18. That's why some part-time contracts are written at just under 15 hours.

• 3 hours × 5 days = 15 hours → you qualify
• 7 hours × 2 days = 14 hours → you don't

2027 holiday pay at a glance

The shortcut formula is (weekly contract hours ÷ 40) × 8 × hourly wage, a simplified version of the official calculation. These are our calculations at ₩10,700 (overtime doesn't count toward it):

Contract hours / week	Paid holiday hours	Weekly holiday pay
14 or fewer	0	₩0
15	3	₩32,100 (≈ $23)
20	4	₩42,800 (≈ $31)
25	5	₩53,500 (≈ $38)
40	8	₩85,600 (≈ $61)

So a 15-hour week pays ₩160,500 for the hours worked plus ₩32,100 holiday pay, ₩192,600 in total. Spread over the hours you actually worked, that's ₩12,840 an hour. Useful when job ads brag about "₩12,000-something an hour": if that number includes holiday pay, it's really just the minimum wage.

3. "It's 90% because you're on probation": when that's illegal

An employer can pay 90% of the minimum wage during probation only if all three of these are true (Minimum Wage Act, Article 5(2)):

1. Your contract is for one year or longer
2. You're within the first three months of probation
3. Your job is not a "simple labor" job on the government's list (delivery, cleaning, gas station attendant, apartment security guard, etc.)

Most part-time and working-holiday jobs are on contracts shorter than a year, so probation or not, you get 100%. Even when all three apply, the floor works out to ₩9,630 an hour in 2027 (our calculation: 90% of ₩10,700). Not paying anything during a "trial period" can count as unpaid wages.

Whether a convenience-store job counts as "simple labor" is interpreted differently by different sources, so we're not stating it either way. If your contract is under a year, it doesn't matter: no cut is allowed.

4. Meals, tiny shops and night shifts

• Cash meal or transport allowances count toward the minimum wage (fully, since 2024), as do regular monthly bonuses. A free staff meal served in-house does not, and neither do overtime or night-shift premiums.
• Shops with fewer than five employees still owe you ₩10,700 and weekly holiday pay, but currently don't have to pay the 1.5× premium for night or overtime work. Six bills to change that were still pending in the National Assembly as of October 20, 2026, with no fixed date.

Chart: K-Gonggam, the Korean government's policy weekly (gonggam.korea.kr), original graphic. Bars show the hourly rate, the line shows the annual increase.

The trend: ₩9,620 (2023, +5.0%), ₩9,860 (2024, +2.5%), ₩10,030 (2025, +1.7%), ₩10,320 (2026, +2.9%), ₩10,700 (2027, +3.7%), the biggest increase since 2023.

Photo: Newsis, July 14, 2026. The tally board from the Minimum Wage Commission's 14th plenary session.

The rate was set by a vote on July 14, 2026: labor proposed ₩10,730, employers ₩10,700, and of 27 voting members, 15 backed the employers' figure, 11 the workers', with 1 invalid.

5. Underpaid? Your checklist

Students finishing Korea's big college entrance exam in November flood the part-time job market. If you're curious what that day looks like, here's our guide to the 2027 Suneung exam day timetable and rules. Before you sign anything:

1. Find "weekly contracted hours" (주 소정근로시간) on your contract. 15 or more means holiday pay. If you're regularly working more than the contract says, ask for the contract to be updated.
2. Run MOEL's minimum wage calculator at moel.go.kr/miniWageMain.do (the page is in Korean, so a browser translation tool helps). Enter your hours, base pay, bonuses, allowances and probation status to see if you're below the line.
3. Keep evidence: a copy of your contract, your schedule, clock-in records (app screenshots work) and bank transfer history. Not being given a written contract is itself a violation by the employer.
4. Call 1350, MOEL's labor counseling line (no area code), then file a petition with your local labor office.
5. Check your January 2027 payslip: the new rate applies to hours worked from January 1. Employers must also post the minimum wage where staff can see it.

Your visa's own work-permission rules (allowed hours, permitted job types) are a separate question this guide doesn't cover, so check those with immigration before you start. Paying below the minimum wage can bring up to 3 years in prison or a ₩20 million (≈ $14,000) fine for the employer, and any part of a contract set below the minimum is void and replaced by the legal rate. Thinking of spending that first paycheck on a gym pass? Read our guide to gym and Pilates refund rules in Korea first.

The bottom line

₩10,700 an hour, ₩2,236,300 a month (holiday pay included), holiday pay once your contract hits 15 hours a week, and no probation cut on contracts under a year. Know those three and you can check your own payslip.

Starting a job in Korea next year? Save this before you sign your contract. Got a different answer from 1350, or heard the small-business rules changed? Drop a comment and we'll update it.

Sources: Ministry of Employment and Labor press release on the 2027 minimum wage (August 5, 2026) and MOEL Notice No. 2026-60; Korea.kr card news and policy reporter articles; K-Gonggam policy weekly; MOEL minimum wage guide (labor.moel.go.kr); Easy Law (easylaw.go.kr); MOEL online and 1350 counseling cases; Newsis (July 15, 2026); Sidae Ilbo (October 15, 2026); Vegan News; Toss Bank; Financial News and Metro Seoul (August 5, 2025). Holiday pay table, effective hourly rate and the ₩9,630 probation floor are our calculations from official figures. Dollar amounts are rough conversions at about ₩1,400 per dollar. Whether convenience-store work counts as "simple labor" could not be confirmed. As of October 30, 2026.