SOUTH Korea’s new president has unveiled a radical plan to get the nation making babies again – by slashing the working week.
President Lee Jae Myung wants citizens to clock off after just four-and-a-half days, saying shorter hours will give people more time for their private lives – and hopefully boost the country’s plunging birth rate.
South Korea’s new president has unveiled a radical plan to get the nation making babies againReuters
President Lee wants citizens to clock off after just four and a half daysGetty
This plan will hopefully boost the plunging birth rateAFP
According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the proposal cites research by the Gyeonggi Research Institute, which found long working hours are one of the biggest barriers stopping young South Koreans from starting families.
Although the official working week is 40 hours, employees regularly put in far more.
With overtime, it can stretch to 52 hours – leaving little time for romance, let alone raising children.
On average, each South Korean works 1,874 hours a year, which is 130 hours more than the OECD average.
By 2030, Lee plans to cut the working week from 40 to 36 hours, with no loss of pay.
And that’s not all – in the long run, he’s aiming for a four-day, 32-hour week, a huge shift for the famously hard-working nation.
A special task force made up of unions, business groups and government officials will now draw up a roadmap for the overhaul.
To help companies make the transition, the government will offer subsidies and tax breaks.
Unions have backed the proposal, calling it a bold but necessary step.
Kim Hyung-sun, head of the national banking union, said: “It is the only key to solving South Korea’s low birth rates and sluggish growth.”
But not everyone’s convinced.
Economists have warned the move could be risky at a time when the economy is already fragile.
The central bank has almost halved its growth forecast to 0.8 percent – lower than during the 1997/98 Asian crisis, the 2008 financial crash, and even the coronavirus pandemic.
Critics fear cutting working hours could slow growth further, just as the country faces mounting economic pressure.
Still, Lee’s government insists the shake-up is essential to tackle the demographic crisis threatening the nation’s future.
South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate, and population decline has become a national emergency.
Whether a shorter week will spark a baby boom remains to be seen – but President Lee is betting on it.
South Korea may be dreaming of a shorter working week – but a new study has revealed a gaping productivity gap that could throw the plan off course.
A report by the Sustainable Growth Initiative found that South Korea’s annual labour productivity per worker was just $65,000 in 2023, ranking 22nd out of 36 OECD countries.
That figure is roughly half of Belgium’s $125,000 and miles behind Iceland’s $144,000 – two nations that have already rolled out four-day workweeks.
It’s also well below France, Germany and the UK, which are all testing shorter workweeks through pilot programmes.
The think tank warned that unless productivity improves, South Korea will struggle to close its income gap with richer nations, many of which are now debating reduced working hours.
“Reduced working hours can boost job satisfaction and spur consumption due to increased leisure time,” the report said.
“But without gains in hourly productivity, annual output will fall and labour costs will rise, increasing the burden on businesses.”
The study also revealed that wages have been growing much faster than productivity, fuelling the problem.
Between 2000 and 2017, wages and productivity rose together, averaging around 3.2 per cent growth each year.
But from 2018 to 2023, that balance broke. Wages jumped by 4 per cent, while productivity crawled up by just 1.7 per cent.
Experts say the widening gap could make Lee’s ambitious plan for a shorter working week harder to pull off – unless the country finds a way to work smarter, not just fewer hours.
Economists have warned the move could be risky at a time when the economy is already fragile.AP
Critics fear cutting working hours could slow growth further, just as the country faces mounting economic pressureAP Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
