South Korea has backed off a plan to lengthen the workweek to 69 hours after a near-revolt by the country’s young people.
President Yoon Suk Yeol’s popularity immediately tanked among Millennial and Generation Z workers — just four days after his administration announced the plan, his disapproval ratings leapt among those age groups to 79 and 66%, respectively, according to the Washington Post.Young workers torpedoed a plan to boost South Korea’s work cap to 69 hours per week.South Korea’s work issues mirror those in China and Japan, both of which have had problems with people working themselves to death.
South Koreans are already relative workaholics, logging an average of 1,915 hours per worker annually, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.Many in South Korea say they still toil above and beyond the government cap.Only people in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico toiled more in 2021, the group said. The United States averaged about 1,791 hours per year in comparison.
Some South Koreans told the Washington Post that they still go above and beyond the government cap for no compensation. But few were eager to officially return to longer workweeks. “We’ve already felt the benefits of shorter weeks,” Lee Jong-sun, a professor of labor relations at Korea University’s Graduate School of Labor Studies in Seoul, told the Washington Post. “Why would anyone want to go back?”
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