Small Companies Fall Short on Worker Satisfaction and Legal Standards, Survey Reports (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Employees at smaller companies in South Korea are significantly less satisfied with their jobs and more likely to experience violations of labor laws than those at larger firms, according to a new survey released on Sunday by the civic group Workplace Bullying 119.
The survey, conducted by Global Research between Oct. 1 and 14 among 1,000 working adults nationwide, found that 34.4 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with their working lives.
Dissatisfaction was most pronounced at private companies with fewer than five employees, where 43.9 percent reported unhappiness, compared with 35.3 percent at firms with more than 300 employees and 29.3 percent at midsize companies with 30 to 300 workers.
Low pay emerged as the leading source of dissatisfaction, cited by 35.5 percent of respondents, followed by limited prospects for advancement, job insecurity, long working hours and difficulty taking leave, and workplace harassment.
Concerns about job stability were widespread, with 52.5 percent of workers saying their employment felt insecure. That figure rose sharply to 67.1 percent among employees at the smallest firms.
The survey also pointed to weaker compliance with labor laws at smaller workplaces. More than 40 percent of workers at private companies with fewer than five employees said their employers did not properly observe basic legal obligations, such as providing written contracts, issuing wage statements or enrolling employees in social insurance programs — nearly 10 percentage points higher than the overall average.
Labor experts warned that excluding very small businesses from key provisions of the Labor Standards Act, often justified as a measure to protect small enterprises, risks further eroding already fragile worker protections.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
