Does a worker in South Korea have days off in the week? for example a babysitter or someone who cleans the house.

Question

Does a worker in South Korea have days off in the week?  for example a babysitter or someone who cleans the house.

ilovekorea337 · Answer

콜롬비아에서는 직장인들이 집청소한다고 월차 내는 게 흔한가요? 이런 이유로 월차를 내도 경영진이 승인을 해 주는지 궁금해요. 한국에서는 차라리 휴일과 공휴일 껴서 여행가려고는 월차를 써도 저런 이유로는 안 내거든요. 물론 이유에 "놀러가려고"라고는 안 쓰지만요.

ilovekorea337 · Answer

Thank you for the explanation.

Here in Korea, hiring a domestic helper who lives with their employer is really really rare and most Korean people do housechores for themselves using various advanced electronics like a robot vaccum cleaner and a dishwasher. We don't get used to hiring someone as a domestic helper as wealthy Colombian people do because it's seen as hiring someone as a servant. So, hiring someone as a housekeeper used to be popular only until the early 20C before Korea became a democratic country like now. There are of course domestic helpers in Korea but almost all of them work by the hour. They work like 2~3 hours a day or only during weekends as a kind of part-time job. And, normally, most Korean people do not prefer to live with a stranger at their house.

Additionally, since labor costs are expensive in Korea, we'll have to pay at least more than USD5,000~/month if we hire one domestic helper who lives with us. I heard that in some places like Singapore, Hong Kong and UAE, it's very common for average people to hire a foreign housekeeper from some Southeast Asian countries and give them a shockingly low wage, but it is impossible in Korea. It's because we have minimum wage laws and this is applied to legal foreign workers, too. Korea is a member of ILO(International Labour Organization), so we try to observe its regulation: regardless of race and nationality, there must not be wage discrimination.

Of course, all Korean workers can certainly take days off. We have monthly leaves, yearly leaves, sick leaves, and maternity leaves as well. These're legal rights for all workers. We just don't take a monthly/yearly leave for cleaning the house because of the reason said above. Everyone will think weirdly if someone wants to take a day off saying they have to clean the house because the reason sounds very weird and the management will think that it doesn't make sense at all. 😅 That's why I didn't understand your question. Whether someone is rich or not, most Korean people cook and clean for themselves whenever they have time, after work and during weekends.

I'm not so sure but maybe only some super rich people like the CEOs of Hyundai and Samsung would hire domestic helpers who live with them, and the helpers will certainly have a day or two days off every week. Otherwise, it will be human rights abuse, and they'll quit working, and report their employers to the police or the press.

kimseon · Answer

네. 한국 직장에는 월차, 연차, 병가, 정기휴가, 그리고 휴직으로 출산휴직과 육아휴직 등이 있습니다. 일부 직종에는 안식년 휴가도 있습니다. 그러나 출산휴직과 육아휴직은 주로 공기업과 공공기관, 공무원 조직에서 흔하며 노조가 아주 빵빵한 회사가 아닌 한, 사기업에서는 아직도 출산과 육아휴직을 제대로 길게 쓰기 어려운 게 현실입니다. 특히 서비스 업종은 더 힘들 겁니다. 월차와 연차도 낼 때 눈치를 좀 봐야 하고, 아이문제라면 몰라도 단순히 집청소한다고  휴가내는 사람은 없습니다. 청소는 퇴근후와 주말에도 충분히 할 수 있는 일이니까요. 보통 연월차 낼 때는 중요하고 긴급한 일 아니면 개인사라고만 쓰고 내는 게 흔합니다.

kimseon · Answer

Oh, sorry I misunderstood your question. happy35 is correct. I thought your question was whether Korean workers have leaves or not.

Do Korean company workers have WEEKLY leaves? 
: No. Because we work 5 days a week. No boss will be happy if we work only 4 days a week. Lol.

Do Korean company workers have leaves?
: Yes, other than a regular vacation, we have monthly/ yearly/ sick/ maternity/ parental leaves.

happy35 · Answer

@Uram  Hola! 
Korean company employees work 5 days a week, Monday to Friday, usually from 9 to 6, one or one and a half hours lunch time included. This is the regular office hour in Korea. So, there is no weekly leave. If we had it, it would mean we work only 4 days a week.

As other people have said, we have monthly leaves and yearly leaves, plus regular holidays. We can take a monthly leave for various reasons but no one will say to their boss in presence that it's because of cleaning the house. We clean the house whenever we want to.

It's very rare to hire a full-time domestic helper in Korea. I've personally never seen anyone hire a full-time domestic helper to do housechores, and usually it's not that related to a financial status.

For the elderly who have difficulty to do housechores on their own, the government sends a helper/caregiver to their house so that they can help the elderly with various things. They work 5 days a week, about 3 hours every day. It's free since it's one of the national welfare systems for the elderly who need help. The helpers get paid by the local government.

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Does a worker in South Korea have days off in the week? for example a babysitter or someone who cleans the house.