Annual Leave and Public Holidays for Hagwon Teachers: What Korean Law Guarantees in 2026

Legal disclaimer: This guide is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Leave and holiday entitlements in Korea depend on the size of the workplace, the hours in the contract, the rules of employment, and the facts of each case, and both statutes and holiday regulations changed in 2026. Anyone with a specific question should contact the Ministry of Employment and Labor counseling line on 1350, which offers foreign language support, or consult a certified labor attorney (공인노무사) before acting.

This guide covers: the headcount rule that decides whether statutory annual leave exists at all, exactly how many days the Labor Standards Act guarantees in the first year and every year after, why a teacher who leaves at the end of a one-year contract is usually owed 11 days rather than 26, how leave is timed and paid, what happens to unused days and how an academy can lawfully make them lapse, the weekly paid holiday, how public holidays became paid days off at private academies, the full 2026 holiday calendar including the two holidays added this year, how summer and winter vacation weeks fit into the law, what to do when leave or holiday pay goes missing, and how academies avoid the most common disputes.

The answer depends on one number: five employees

Short answer: Statutory annual leave and paid public holidays are guaranteed only at workplaces with five or more regular employees. At academies with four or fewer, the Labor Standards Act's annual leave article and its public holiday paragraph do not apply, so leave there is whatever the contract says. Two protections survive at every size: the weekly paid holiday, and Labor Day on May 1.

This is the fact that explains why two teachers in the same city, with almost identical contracts, can have completely different entitlements. It is also the same threshold that decides overtime premiums, covered in the guide to unpaid overtime.

Article 11 of the Labor Standards Act (근로기준법) applies the Act in full to workplaces that regularly employ five or more workers. For workplaces with four or fewer, only the provisions listed in an appendix to the Enforcement Decree apply. Annual paid leave under Article 60 is not on that list. The weekly paid holiday under Article 55(1) is.

How the headcount is counted

The count is not the number of foreign teachers. It is everyone the academy regularly employs, including Korean teachers, desk staff, part-time and fixed-term workers. The Enforcement Decree counts the total worker-days over the month before the relevant event and divides by the number of operating days. For the annual leave articles specifically, a workplace is treated as covered where a monthly count shows five or more workers continuously over the preceding year.

Practical tip: Before arguing about leave, establish the headcount. The four major social insurance enrollment list for the workplace is the document that shows it, and a labor office can confirm it during an investigation. Counting colleagues on a staff photo is not enough when part-timers and office staff also count.

The 15-hour line

A second threshold applies regardless of workplace size. Under Article 18(3), a worker whose scheduled hours average fewer than 15 a week over four weeks is excluded from both the weekly paid holiday (Article 55) and annual leave (Article 60). This matters for part-time teachers and for anyone holding a second, small teaching job. Full-time E-2 contracts are well above it.

How much annual leave the law guarantees

Short answer: In the first year, one paid day for each month of full attendance, which produces up to 11 days. After a full year with at least 80 percent attendance, 15 days. From the third year, one extra day is added for every two years of service beyond the first, up to a ceiling of 25 days.

These are minimums. A contract can offer more, and any contract clause offering less is void to that extent.

The first year: one day a month

Article 60(2) gives a worker with less than one year of continuous service one paid day for each month worked with full attendance (개근). A full first year therefore produces 11 days, because the twelfth month completes the year and the larger entitlement takes over from that point. The same one-day-per-month rule applies in a later year to anyone whose attendance over the year fell below 80 percent.

Probation does not switch this off. A month of full attendance during probation earns a day like any other month, as explained in the guide to probation clauses.

After one year: 15 days

Article 60(1) requires 15 paid days for a worker who attended at least 80 percent over a year. Certain absences count as attendance for this calculation under Article 60(6), including time off for a work-related injury or illness, maternity leave, and parental leave.

How the entitlement grows

Article 60(4) adds one day for every two years of continuous service beyond the first year, once a worker has served three years or more, with a cap of 25 days in total.

Contract days versus statutory days

Many hagwon contracts state a fixed number of vacation days per contract year, and some state fewer than the statute. Article 15 of the Act makes any part of a contract that falls below the statutory standard void, and replaces it with the statutory standard. At a covered workplace, a contract promising fewer days than Article 60 does not reduce the entitlement. It simply means the statute governs instead.

The reverse is also true at a small academy. Where the Act's leave article does not apply, a contract that promises a number of paid vacation days is still a binding promise, and failing to provide or pay for those days is a contract and wage matter.

Practical tip: Read the vacation clause for three things: the number of days, whether the academy or the teacher chooses the dates, and whether public holidays are listed separately or counted inside the vacation total. A clause that blends all three is where most disputes start.

The one-year contract question: 11 days or 26?

Short answer: A teacher whose employment ends exactly at the end of a one-year contract is generally owed up to 11 days from the first year, not 11 plus 15. The 15-day entitlement arises only if the employment relationship still exists on the day after the year is completed. A teacher who renews and keeps working into a second year receives the 15 days as well.

This matters more to E-2 teachers than almost anyone, because the standard hagwon contract is exactly one year long.

What changed in 2021

For years, a common interpretation held that completing one year with 80 percent attendance created the 15 days immediately, so a worker who left the next day could claim payment for them. On October 14, 2021, the Supreme Court (case 2021다227100) held that the right to the 15 days arises on the day after a year of service is completed, and a worker whose employment ends before that day cannot claim payment for them. The Ministry of Employment and Labor revised its own interpretation on December 16, 2021 to follow the ruling, describing the trigger as the employment relationship continuing to the 366th day.

Practical tip: A teacher planning to leave at the end of a contract should treat the 11 first-year days as the realistic figure and plan to use them during the year, or check how they will be paid out, rather than counting on a further 15.

Taking leave, getting paid for it, and what happens to unused days

Short answer: The teacher chooses when to take statutory leave, and the academy may move the dates only where the request would seriously disrupt the business. Leave days are paid. Unused days lapse after a year, but the academy must pay for them unless it ran the formal leave promotion procedure in writing. On leaving the job, unused leave that has already arisen is paid in the final settlement.

Who decides the dates

Article 60(5) requires leave to be granted at the time the worker requests it. The employer may change the timing only where granting it then would cause serious disruption to business operations. That is a narrow exception, not a general veto. In an academy, a request for a week in the middle of an exam-preparation period is a plausible case for moving the dates; a blanket rule that leave can be taken only in the academy's chosen weeks is a different matter, covered in the vacation section below.

How leave is paid

Leave days are paid at ordinary wages (통상임금) or average wages (평균임금), as set by the rules of employment. The Enforcement Decree requires the payment on the regular payday before the leave or immediately after it. For a monthly-salaried teacher, this usually means the salary simply continues unchanged.

Unused leave and payment

Under Article 60(7), leave not used within a year lapses, except where the worker could not use it because of the employer. When the right to take the leave lapses, the unused days convert into a claim for payment for unused leave (연차휴가 미사용수당). For first-year monthly leave, the year runs to the end of the first year of employment.

These figures are illustrative. The 209-hour divisor is the standard monthly conversion used by the Ministry for a 40-hour week, and the actual basis depends on scheduled daily hours and how allowances are structured. Teachers on shorter scheduled days than eight hours should expect a proportionally smaller daily figure.

Leave promotion: how unused days can lapse without payment

Article 61 sets out the leave promotion procedure (연차 사용 촉진). Where an academy follows it exactly, in writing, and the teacher still does not use the leave, the academy owes nothing for the lapsed days.

A verbal reminder, a group chat message saying "use your leave", or a notice sent outside these windows does not meet the procedure. The burden is on the academy to show each written step was taken on time.

Practical tip: A teacher who receives a written leave promotion notice should reply with dates within the 10-day window and then actually take the days. Ignoring the notice is the one situation in which unused statutory leave can lawfully disappear unpaid.

When the job ends

Leaving does not cancel leave that has already arisen. Unused days are paid in the final settlement, which Article 36 requires within 14 days of departure unless both sides agree in writing to extend it. Like other wage claims, a claim for unused leave pay expires three years after it could first be exercised. Severance is a separate entitlement, covered in the guide to severance pay.

The weekly paid holiday

Short answer: Every worker scheduled for an average of 15 or more hours a week is entitled to at least one paid day off a week, at workplaces of any size. It is earned by attending all scheduled working days in that week. For a monthly-salaried teacher it is normally built into the salary already.

The weekly paid holiday (주휴일) and the payment for it (주휴수당) are the part of Korean leave law that applies at every academy, including the smallest.

Article 55(1) requires at least one paid holiday per week on average, and the Enforcement Decree gives it to workers who attended all of their scheduled working days that week. It is also why the Ministry's standard monthly conversion uses 209 hours, which includes paid weekly holiday hours on top of a 40-hour week.

Practical tip: Hourly teachers should check whether a payslip pays only the hours in the classroom. At 15 or more scheduled hours a week with full attendance, the weekly paid holiday is owed on top, and it is the single most commonly missed item in part-time academy pay.

Public holidays at private academies

Short answer: Since January 1, 2022, workplaces with five to 29 employees have had to give public holidays and substitute holidays as paid days off, completing a phase-in that began with large employers in 2020. The holidays covered are the official public holidays except Sundays, plus substitute holidays. Before that change, private employers could treat most public holidays as ordinary working days.

This is the question the Chuseok travel guide deliberately left open, and the answer turns on headcount once again.

The phase-in

Article 55(2) refers to the holidays listed in the Regulation on Public Holidays of Government Offices (관공서의 공휴일에 관한 규정), excluding Sundays, together with substitute holidays (대체공휴일) under the same regulation. Because the reference is to that list, any day the government adds to it, including election days and the two holidays added in 2026, becomes a paid holiday at covered academies automatically.

Swapping a holiday for another day

Article 55(2) allows a public holiday to be replaced with a specific working day, but only by written agreement with the worker representative (근로자대표). A note from the director announcing that the academy will open on a holiday and close on a different day is not that agreement. Without it, the holiday remains a paid holiday and work on it is holiday work.

Working on a holiday

At workplaces with five or more employees, Article 56 requires a premium for holiday work: 50 percent of ordinary wages for the first eight hours and 100 percent beyond eight. Because the holiday itself is already paid, a teacher who works a public holiday at a covered academy is owed the normal pay for the day plus the hours worked with the premium, unless a valid written swap moved the holiday. At four or fewer employees, the premium provisions do not apply.

Labor Day is different

May 1 has its own statute. The Labor Day Act (노동절 제정에 관한 법률), as rewritten on November 11, 2025, designates May 1 as Labor Day (노동절) and makes it a paid holiday under the Labor Standards Act. Because the statute is not limited by workplace size, Labor Day is a paid holiday at small academies too. News reporting on the 2026 change also notes that Labor Day cannot be swapped for another day in the way ordinary public holidays can.

Practical tip: Ask for the academy's holiday schedule for the year in writing, with each date listed, rather than relying on a contract phrase such as "national holidays". The phrase does not say whether substitute holidays, election days, or the newly added holidays are included.

The 2026 public holiday calendar

Short answer: 2026 has 16 public holidays and substitute holidays that fall on weekdays, including two that returned or were newly listed this year: Labor Day on May 1 and Constitution Day on July 17. Chuseok runs from Thursday, September 24 to Saturday, September 26, with no substitute day. Four weekend holidays produce substitute Mondays.

What changed in 2026

On April 28, 2026, the Cabinet approved an amendment to the holiday regulation adding Labor Day and restoring Constitution Day, which had been removed from the public holiday list in 2008. The amendment took effect on May 1, 2026, with the Constitution Day change in force from May 11, 2026. Both days are also covered by the substitute holiday rule if they fall on a weekend.

The full list

How substitute holidays work

The regulation's substitute holiday rule is narrower than many people assume. The national holidays, Buddha's Birthday, Labor Day, Children's Day, and Christmas get a substitute weekday when they fall on a Saturday or Sunday. Seollal and Chuseok get one only when a day of the holiday falls on a Sunday. New Year's Day and Memorial Day are not covered at all. Where a holiday overlaps with another holiday on a weekday, the first following non-holiday also becomes a substitute holiday.

That is why 2026 Chuseok produces no extra day: its third day falls on a Saturday, not a Sunday.

Practical tip: At a covered academy with a Monday to Friday schedule, every date in the "weekday" column of that table, plus each substitute Monday, is a paid day off unless a valid written swap exists. The remaining paid holiday for the rest of 2026 is Christmas Day, Friday, December 25.

Summer and winter vacation weeks, and contract vacation clauses

Short answer: Many academies close for a week in summer and winter and call it vacation. Whether those closures count against statutory annual leave depends on how they were set up. The law gives the worker the right to choose leave dates, and the mechanism that lets an employer fix leave days for everyone is a written agreement with the worker representative under Article 62.

This is the most common source of confusion between the contract and the law at academies, because the academy calendar and the statutory leave calendar are two different things.

Three ways a closure week can be treated

Article 62 permits an employer to give workers time off on specific working days in place of annual leave, by written agreement with the worker representative. Without that agreement, a unilateral decision by the academy to close, and then to count the closure against each teacher's statutory leave, sits uneasily with Article 60(5), which leaves the choice of dates to the worker.

Where an academy closes for its own reasons and does not pay for the closure, Article 46 requires a suspension allowance of at least 70 percent of average wages at covered workplaces. In practice, most academies pay salaried teachers normally through closure weeks, which avoids the problem.

Practical tip: Ask, in writing, whether the summer and winter weeks are counted as part of the contract's vacation days or are given in addition, and whether a worker representative agreement exists. One sentence in reply settles a question that otherwise surfaces at the end of the contract, when the final pay is calculated.

If leave or holiday pay is missing

Short answer: Establish the headcount, count the days owed, ask in writing, then contact 1350 and, if needed, file with the local labor office. Unused leave and holiday pay are wage claims, so the three-year limitation applies and the final settlement is due within 14 days of leaving.

Violations of the weekly holiday, public holiday, and annual leave provisions are criminal offenses under Article 110, punishable by up to two years in prison or a fine of up to ₩20 million, which gives a labor inspector real leverage.

1. Establish the headcount. Five or more regular employees, counted as the Enforcement Decree requires, decides whether annual leave and paid public holidays apply at all.
2. Collect the documents. Contract, rules of employment if any, payslips, bank deposits, the academy calendar, and any messages about closures, swaps, or leave requests.
3. Count the days. Months of full attendance in the first year, the 15 days once employment passed the one-year mark, public holidays worked or unpaid, and any weeks of missed weekly paid holiday for hourly work.
4. Check for a leave promotion notice. If written notices were received within the Article 61 windows, the unused days may have lapsed lawfully. If none were received, they remain payable.
5. Ask internally in writing. Many disputes are calculation errors. A written request creates a record either way.
6. Call 1350. The Ministry of Employment and Labor counseling line handles leave, holiday, and wage questions, with foreign language support.
7. File a complaint with the local labor office if the issue is not resolved. A labor inspector investigates and can direct payment.
8. Watch the deadlines. Final pay is due within 14 days of leaving, and each wage claim expires three years after it could first be exercised.

Practical tip: Submit leave requests in writing, by email or message, with the dates. A record of requests made and refused is what turns "the academy would not let me take leave" into a case of leave left unused because of the employer, which Article 60(7) treats differently.

For academies

Hagwon Hub is read by academy operators as well as teachers, and nearly every leave dispute is avoidable through drafting and record-keeping.

• Know the headcount, month by month. Crossing five regular employees, counting Korean staff and part-timers, switches on annual leave and paid public holidays.
• Write the vacation clause in statutory terms. State the number of days, how they relate to Article 60, and whether academy closure weeks are additional to statutory leave or designated in place of it.
• Use Article 62 properly. If closure weeks are meant to use up annual leave, put a written agreement with the worker representative in place before the year starts.
• Publish the holiday calendar. List every 2026 paid holiday and substitute holiday, including Labor Day, Constitution Day, and election days, and issue the 2027 calendar once it is confirmed.
• Swap holidays only in writing. Moving a public holiday requires a written agreement with the worker representative, and Labor Day is reported to be outside that mechanism.
• Run leave promotion by the calendar. If unused leave should lapse without payment, the written Article 61 notices must go out within the statutory windows, every year, for every teacher.
• Budget for the one-year exit. A teacher leaving at the end of a one-year contract can be owed up to 11 days of unused leave in the final settlement, payable within 14 days.
• Pay the weekly holiday to hourly staff. Part-time teachers scheduled for 15 or more hours a week earn it at any workplace size.

Common problems and what causes them

Frequently asked questions

How many vacation days do teachers get in Korea?
At a workplace with five or more employees, up to 11 days in the first year (one per month of full attendance) and 15 days after a full year with 80 percent attendance, rising by one day every two years from the third year to a maximum of 25. At smaller academies, the contract decides.

Do hagwon teachers get paid public holidays?
Yes at academies with five or more regular employees, since January 1, 2022 for workplaces with five to 29 employees. At academies with four or fewer, public holidays are not statutory paid holidays, although Labor Day on May 1 and the weekly paid holiday still apply.

Is May 1 a holiday for academy teachers?
Yes. The Labor Day Act makes May 1 a paid holiday under the Labor Standards Act, and since May 1, 2026 it is also on the official public holiday list.

Is Constitution Day a holiday again in 2026?
Yes. Constitution Day, July 17, returned to the public holiday list in 2026 after being removed in 2008, which makes it a paid holiday at covered academies.

Is there a substitute holiday for Chuseok 2026?
No. Chuseok 2026 runs from Thursday, September 24 to Saturday, September 26, and Seollal and Chuseok trigger a substitute day only when they overlap a Sunday.

Can an academy decide when annual leave is taken?
Ordinarily the teacher chooses, and the academy can change the timing only where the request would seriously disrupt the business. Fixing leave days for everyone requires a written agreement with the worker representative.

Does unused annual leave get paid out when a contract ends?
Leave that has already arisen and was not used is paid in the final settlement, due within 14 days of leaving. The 15 days for a completed year arise only if employment continues to the day after that year ends.

Can an academy refuse to pay for unused leave?
Only if it ran the written leave promotion procedure in Article 61 within the required windows and the teacher still did not use the days. Otherwise the lapsed days must be paid.

Do part-time teachers get the weekly holiday allowance?
Yes, if scheduled for an average of 15 or more hours a week and all scheduled days that week were attended. Below 15 hours, neither the weekly paid holiday nor annual leave applies.

Does probation affect annual leave?
No. A month of full attendance during probation earns a day of leave like any other month.

What happens if a teacher works on a public holiday?
At a covered academy, the day remains paid and the hours worked attract a 50 percent premium for the first eight hours and 100 percent beyond, unless the holiday was validly swapped in writing. At four or fewer employees, the premium does not apply.

The short version

Korean law guarantees annual leave and paid public holidays, but only at workplaces with five or more regular employees. At those academies, a teacher earns up to 11 days in the first year and 15 days after that, chooses when to take them, and is paid for any days the academy does not lawfully cause to lapse.

The one-year contract is the trap: the 15 days arise only if employment continues past the anniversary, so a teacher who leaves at the end of a single year should plan around 11.

Public holidays are paid days off at covered academies, including substitute holidays and, from 2026, Labor Day and Constitution Day. Labor Day and the weekly paid holiday apply at every academy, whatever its size.

The single most useful thing to do is ask the academy for two things in writing: its headcount status and its list of paid holidays and vacation days for the year.

Sources

• National Law Information Center, Labor Standards Act: scope (Article 11), contract terms below the standard (Article 15), workers under 15 hours (Article 18), final settlement (Article 36), suspension allowance (Article 46), wage limitation (Article 49), weekly and public holidays with phase-in dates (Article 55), premiums (Article 56), annual leave (Articles 60 to 62), penalties (Article 110) (Korean)
• National Law Information Center, Enforcement Decree of the Labor Standards Act: provisions for small workplaces, headcount method, weekly holiday condition, holidays covered by Article 55(2), timing of leave pay (Korean)
• National Law Information Center, Regulation on Public Holidays of Government Offices as amended April 30, 2026: list of public holidays, substitute holiday rules, effective dates (Korean)
• National Law Information Center, Labor Day Act of November 11, 2025: May 1 as a paid holiday under the Labor Standards Act (Korean)
• Newsis, April 28, 2026: Cabinet approves Labor Day and Constitution Day as public holidays, substitute holiday coverage, and Labor Day swap restriction (Korean)
• Wikitree: Constitution Day confirmed as a 2026 public holiday after 18 years (Korean)
• Shiftee HR blog, updated February 3, 2026: 2026 public holiday dates and substitute holidays (Korean)
• Wikidocs: Chuseok 2026 dates and why no substitute holiday applies (Korean)
• Shiftee HR blog, June 16, 2026: which Labor Standards Act provisions apply to workplaces with fewer than five employees (Korean)
• Korea Labor Institute, Labor Review No. 201, December 2021: Supreme Court decision 2021다227100 on annual leave after one year of service (Korean)
• Financial News, December 16, 2021: Ministry of Employment and Labor revises its annual leave interpretation to the 366th day (Korean)
• Ministry of Employment and Labor: 2026 minimum wage and the 209-hour monthly conversion (Korean)
• Ministry of Employment and Labor counseling line: 1350
• Korea Immigration Contact Center: 1345

For how the same five-employee threshold decides overtime premiums, see the guide to unpaid overtime. For leave and pay during the first months of a contract, see the guide to probation clauses. For the payment due at the end of a contract, see the guide to severance pay. For planning around the September holiday, see the Chuseok travel guide.