Korea Sick Leave Entitlement, Explained for Foreign Workers

Your throat is closing up. You have a fever, a 9am standup, and no clear idea whether calling in sick will cost you a day’s pay. You search for an answer and get five different ones.

Here is the part almost nobody explains to foreign residents. Korea treats illness and injury at work as two completely separate legal problems. One of them has strong protection written into national law. The other one barely appears in the statute books at all.

Guess which one covers your flu.

So how many paid sick days does Korean law give you?

Zero. The Labor Standards Act (Geunro Gijunbeop) sets no minimum number of paid sick days in Korea by law for ordinary, non-work-related illness. Your employer has no statutory duty to pay you for a day spent in bed with a virus. Paid sick leave does exist in Korea. It comes from your company’s rules of employment, your collective agreement, or your individual contract.

Where the paid days actually come from

Every workplace with 10 or more employees must draft rules of employment (chwieop gyuchik) and file them with the Ministry of Employment and Labor. That document is where byeongga (sick leave) lives, if it exists at all. Large conglomerates, foreign-invested companies, and universities often grant 30 to 60 paid sick days per year. Small startups and hagwon (private academies) frequently grant none.

Public servants are the outlier. Under the State Public Officials Service Regulation, they receive up to 60 paid sick days a year. That generous number circulates online and confuses everyone else. It does not apply to private-sector workers.

So ask for the document. You are legally entitled to read your own rules of employment. The Ministry of Employment and Labor treats refusal to make them accessible as a violation.

That leaves an obvious question. If the law gives you nothing, what have your Korean colleagues been using all this time?

Why your annual leave quietly becomes your sick leave

Most employees in Korea burn paid annual leave when they get sick. Article 60 of the Labor Standards Act grants 15 paid days after one full year of continuous work. During your first year, you earn one day for each completed month, up to 11 days. After three years, you gain one extra day every two years. Employers decide whether a sick absence is deducted from that balance.

The five-employee cliff

This is the detail that catches foreign workers hardest. Workplaces with fewer than five employees are exempt from Article 60 entirely. No statutory annual leave. No statutory overtime premium. No protection against unfair dismissal. Many small academies, cafes, and design studios sit right under that line.

Count the people, not the desks. Part-timers working 15 or more hours per week count toward the total.

What your employer can and cannot do

Your employer can require advance notice. Your employer can ask you to use annual leave for a sick day. Your employer cannot silently convert an absence into unpaid leave when you had annual leave available and asked to use it. Under Article 60(5), the timing of leave is your choice, and the employer may change it only when your absence would seriously disrupt business operations.

Keep the message trail. A KakaoTalk message to your manager saying “I am sick today and would like to use one day of annual leave” is evidence. A phone call is not.

Korea annual leave entitlement

Now for the scenario where the law stops being vague and starts being specific.

The one situation where sick pay is guaranteed

Work-related injury or disease. Here the employer sick leave obligation in Korea becomes absolute. Under Articles 78 and 79 of the Labor Standards Act, the employer must cover medical treatment and pay compensation while you cannot work. In practice the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service (COMWEL) pays instead, at 70% of your average wage for every day of approved absence, through Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance.

“Where a worker suffers from an occupational injury or disease, the employer shall bear the expenses for medical treatment or provide necessary medical treatment.” Labor Standards Act, Article 78, English translation published by the Ministry of Government Legislation

What counts as work-related

More than you think. A back injury from lifting stock counts. A commuting accident on your normal route to the office counts. So does an occupational disease recognized by COMWEL, including certain stress-related conditions with medical evidence.

You file the claim yourself with COMWEL. You do not need your employer’s permission or signature to start. That surprises people. Employers sometimes discourage claims because accident records affect their premium rate, but blocking a claim is itself unlawful.

The protection nobody mentions

Article 23(2) bans dismissal during the period of medical treatment for a work-related injury and for 30 days afterward. Your job is frozen in place while you recover. No equivalent protection exists for ordinary illness.

There is also a partial safety net for non-work illness. The National Health Insurance Service runs a sickness benefit pilot (sangbyeong sudang) in selected districts, paying a daily allowance based on the minimum wage while you cannot work. Coverage depends on where you live and where you work, so check eligibility directly with NHIS rather than assuming.

Before any of this pays out, one piece of paper decides everything.

What your doctor’s note actually has to say

A medical certificate is required for sick leave in most Korean workplaces, and the rules of employment set the threshold. Typical triggers are absences of two or three consecutive days. The standard document is a jindanseo (diagnosis certificate) issued by the treating hospital or clinic. It lists your diagnosis, the issuing doctor’s license number, and, critically, a recommended rest period.

Two documents, very different weight

Ask for the right one at the reception desk.

1. Jinryo hwaginseo (treatment confirmation). Proves you visited. Cheap, often around 1,000 to 3,000 won. Usually enough for a single missed day.
2. Jindanseo (diagnosis certificate). States the condition and the rest period a doctor recommends. Expect roughly 10,000 to 20,000 won. Required for multi-day leave, insurance claims, and any dispute.

Say this at the desk: “Jindanseo hana juseyo.” Then ask the doctor to write the rest period in days. Without that line, HR has room to argue.

English versions cost more and take longer

Most large hospitals issue English certificates for international patients, usually at a higher fee and with a wait of one to three business days. If the document is going to an embassy, a home-country insurer, or an immigration office, request the English version at the same visit. Requesting it later means a second consultation fee.

Keep every receipt. Your employer must reimburse certificate costs only if the rules of employment say so.

NHIS hospital visit guide for foreigners

So you have the note. How long can you actually stay away?

How long you can stay out before your job is at risk

There is no statutory unpaid sick leave maximum duration in Korea. The Labor Standards Act sets no ceiling and no floor. Your rules of employment decide, and a common company limit is 30 to 90 days of unpaid byeongga per year. Beyond that limit, dismissal on grounds of incapacity becomes legally possible for non-work illness, though the employer still has to prove the absence made continued employment unreasonable.

What happens to your money and your insurance

Unpaid leave is genuinely unpaid. No wage, and no employment insurance benefit, because Employment Insurance covers job loss and parental leave, not personal sickness.

National health insurance premiums keep accruing during unpaid leave. NHIS allows a deferment of premium notices (napip gojisi yuye) for employees on extended leave without pay, filed by your employer’s HR team. Ask for it before the leave starts, not after the bills pile up.

If you think the dismissal was unfair

Workplaces with five or more employees fall under the unfair dismissal rules. You can file with the Labor Relations Commission within three months of the dismissal date. Free labor counseling in multiple languages is available through the Ministry of Employment and Labor hotline at 1350.

One group faces a second layer of risk on top of all this.

Does being a foreigner change any of this?

Not for labor rights. Article 6 of the Labor Standards Act bans discrimination by nationality, so foreigner worker sick pay rights are identical to those of Korean nationals. E-7, E-9, F-2, F-4, F-5, and F-6 holders all receive the same annual leave, the same COMWEL coverage, and the same access to the Labor Relations Commission. Your visa changes your immigration exposure, not your entitlement.

Where the visa risk actually sits

Employment-linked visas depend on an active sponsor. E-7 is the clearest case. If long illness ends in dismissal or resignation, you must report the change of workplace or loss of employment to immigration, generally within 15 days. Check the current requirement on HiKorea or call the immigration contact center at 1345, which offers English service.

After that, the clock matters more than the paperwork. Losing E-7 sponsorship does not cancel your stay instantly, but it starts a limited window to find a new sponsor or change status, often to D-10 for job seeking. The Korea Immigration Service publishes the current conditions.

Students and F visas

D-2 students working part-time under a permit are workers too. Annual leave accrues in proportion to hours worked, and COMWEL covers workplace injury regardless of student status. A long hospital stay can still affect attendance, and attendance affects D-2 extension, so notify your international office early.

F-2, F-5, F-6, and F-4 holders have no employer-linked stay condition. Illness carries no immigration consequence for them, only the wage consequence.

E-7 change of workplace report

Do these three things this week

You do not need to be sick to prepare.

1. Request your rules of employment from HR and find the byeongga clause. Save a photo of it.
2. Check your remaining annual leave balance in writing, by email or messenger.
3. Confirm which nearby hospital issues English diagnosis certificates, and how many days it takes.

The workers who get paid are rarely the sickest ones. They are the ones who already knew what their own contract said.