Korea Part-Time Pay Calculator for Foreign Workers and Students

Yes, if the conditions are met: you are scheduled for an average of at least 15 hours a week over 4 weeks, and you work every scheduled day of that week. Exactly 15 hours counts; fewer than 15 hours is excluded (Labor Standards Act Art. 18(3)). The paid weekly holiday goes to someone who works all the scheduled days of the week (Art. 55(1); Enforcement Decree Art. 30(1)). Your job must last through the weekly holiday: you must still be employed on that day (Ministry of Employment and Labor guidance). If your last day is close to it, ask the labor office (1350). The calculator shows Check when this is unclear. Workplaces with fewer than 5 employees appear to be covered too, because Art. 55(1) is on the Decree's list for small workplaces (Decree Art. 7 and Table 1). The allowance is one extra paid day. This calculator works it out as hourly wage × weekly hours ÷ 40 × 8. That form is the calculator's own method, based on Enforcement Decree Art. 6(3) and Table 2 and a Ministry interpretation; it is not written in the law. A week with an absence counts as ₩0 here. The articles have no nationality or visa condition. See Limitations for what is not confirmed.

The 2026 minimum wage is ₩10,320 an hour, from 2026-01-01 (Ministry of Employment and Labor Notice No. 2025-47). The 2027 minimum wage is ₩10,700 an hour (Notice No. 2026-60). The 2027 rate applies generally from 2027-01-01 under Minimum Wage Act Art. 10(2), but for certain types of business the Minister may set another date, considering wage-bargaining timing. For 40 hours a week (209 hours a month, which includes the paid weekly holiday), that is ₩2,156,880 a month in 2026 and ₩2,236,300 a month in 2027.

Yes. The Minimum Wage Act has no nationality condition: an employer must pay a worker covered by the Act at least the minimum wage, and any pay agreed below it is void (Minimum Wage Act Art. 6(1) and (3)). Exceptions such as a trial-period reduction are not judged by this calculator. A student visa holder who works without the required permission may face other penalties; see the visa question below.

Some employers pay part-time workers as freelancers and withhold 3.3%. That is 3% income tax on business income (Income Tax Act Art. 129(1) item 3) plus local income tax of 10% of that tax (Local Tax Act Art. 103-13(1)), which is 0.3% of the pay. On ₩1,000,000 that is ₩30,000 + ₩3,000 = ₩33,000 withheld and ₩967,000 paid. No social insurance is taken out in this row. The 3.3% figure here is for a tax resident, meaning someone with a home in Korea or 183 days or more of stay (Income Tax Act Art. 1-2). For a non-resident, ask your employer or the National Tax Service. Compare it with the two other rows in the result.

Not necessarily, and this calculator does not decide it. In one Ministry of Employment and Labor online consultation answer (undated, and possibly from 2014), the ministry said an employee is judged by the reality of the work, not the name in the contract. For the asker's case, where having no social insurance and having 3.3% withheld (pointing towards "not an employee") were mixed with set working hours and a written work contract (pointing towards "employee"), it said it could not give a definite answer. In a press release dated 2026-03-19 (https://www.moel.go.kr/news/enews/report/enewsView.do?news_seq=19096), the ministry said it selected 108 workplaces suspected of disguising employees as freelancers ("fake 3.3%") for inspection. If you are worried, call the Ministry of Employment and Labor Contact Center at 1350 (Korean).

It depends on the insurance, your nationality and your visa. National Pension: foreigners aged 18 to under 60 who work at an insured workplace are covered, except nationals of countries whose own pension system does not cover Koreans (reciprocity) and people with a social security agreement certificate (National Pension Service, English page). Health insurance: foreigners who work at an insured workplace are enrolled, and you can apply for exclusion if you are covered by medical care elsewhere (National Health Insurance Service, English page). Employment insurance: mandatory for F-2, F-5 and F-6; mandatory for E-9 and H-2 but with optional unemployment benefit; optional for several other work visas (Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, Korean page). That page does not list D-2 or D-4, so employment insurance for students is unclear; ask your employer. For the National Pension, the National Pension Service table of foreigner visa types (as of 2024-04-01) lists D-2 and D-4 as excluded from compulsory coverage; see the National Pension note in the calculator result. Short-time workers with fewer than 60 scheduled hours a month are left out of the National Pension (with exceptions) and of workplace health insurance (exclusion can also be applied for with equivalent medical coverage), and the employment insurance rule uses 60 hours a month or 15 hours a week (Enforcement Decrees, shown in the result). Row 3 of the result assumes you are enrolled and lets you remove National Pension and employment insurance.

Doing work outside your visa status needs prior permission from the Minister of Justice (Immigration Act Art. 20). The article does not name D-2, D-4 or part-time work, so ask HiKorea (www.hikorea.go.kr) or call the Immigration Contact Center at 1345 how it applies to student part-time work before you work. Working without the Art. 20 permission can mean up to 3 years in prison or a fine of up to ₩30,000,000 (Art. 94 item 12). The Ministry of Justice sets weekly hour limits for student part-time work, and they can change or depend on your situation. This calculator does not show or check any limit.

Overtime, night work (10 pm to 6 am) and holiday work earn an extra 50% or more of your ordinary hourly wage, and holiday work over 8 hours earns an extra 100% (Labor Standards Act Art. 56). The Act applies in general to workplaces with 5 or more regular workers, with exceptions such as workplaces employing only relatives living together and domestic workers (Art. 11(1)). At workplaces with 4 or fewer, only some provisions apply (Art. 11(2)). The premium article appears not to be on that list (Decree Art. 7 and Table 1), so there is probably no premium there; ask the labor office. This calculator does not calculate any premium; it stops at 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week.