This photo, taken on March 7, 2023, shows pedestrians in central Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 21 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean workers do not take about 30 percent of their annual leave on average, a survey showed Monday.
According to a survey of 22,000 workers between the ages of 19 and 59 conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, the number of days of annual leave granted to wage workers stood at 17.03 days on average in 2021.
Of the total, only 11.63 days were taken, more than five days less than the annual leave available to the workers.
Most of the wage workers were granted designated annual leave, but 468 workers had no designated annual leave at all. Under these circumstances, they took only 3.13 days as annual leave.
In response to a question asking why they did not take all of the days off they were entitled to, 18.3 percent cited a shortage of employees, followed by an excessive workload at 17.6 percent, walking on eggshells around supervisors at 11.4 percent, and organizational atmosphere at 5.1 percent.
Another 20.1 percent said that they did not take annual leave to receive annual leave allowances. Among them, those in their 50s accounted for 25.6 percent, far higher than those in their 20s at 14.1 percent.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
