South Korea's Presidential campaign promise of a 4.5-day work week has been included in the government's budget... 27.6 billion won allocated

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung's election pledge to introduce a 4.5-day work week will be included in next year's government budget.
This is the first model project that the central government will support for companies to introduce, and it aims to promote work-life balance through the reduction of working hours.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on the 31st that it has allocated 27.6 billion won (approximately 2.9 billion yen) to the 2026 budget to promote work-life balance.
) and will implement the "Work-Life Balance + 4.5 Project" targeting approximately 420 companies. Of these, 150 companies will be designated as workplaces where the new system will be introduced after labor-management agreement is reached.
Incentives will be provided for each employee. Participating companies will also receive consulting services to help with redesigning work systems, productivity management, and personnel allocation.
Priority will be given to industries that require shift work and those related to life safety, and subsidies will be provided to small and medium-sized enterprises that are having difficulty filling staff gaps.
During the election campaign, President Lee said, "I will improve the quality of life for workers through the 4.5-day work week and reduce the burden on the environment."
Since taking office, he has also stated that "reducing working hours is not just about rest, but also about improving safety and productivity." The latest budget measures are intended to translate this philosophy of the administration into concrete policies.
Gyeonggi Province has already been implementing a 4.5-day workweek model project targeting 68 companies since last year. The project provides a maximum monthly subsidy of 260,000 won per worker and 100,000 yen per company.
The central government's project will provide consulting support of up to 20 million won per company. The project will be expanded nationwide in scale compared to the Gyeonggi Province initiative, and will provide preferential treatment to industries that employ shift workers or are safety-related.
Lee Hyun-ok, a policy planning officer at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, explained, "While the Gyeonggi Province project is at the 'feasibility verification' stage, the central government's project is characterized by also verifying the 'possibility of dissemination.'"
"We will systematically evaluate the results and consider fully institutionalizing the system," he said. The government will consider whether to expand the system based on the results of the model project.
The government plans to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of the system using indicators such as the rate of workplace accidents. An official from the Ministry of Employment and Labor said, "Next year's model project will not simply be about 'increasing the number of holidays,' but rather about the relationship between companies and workers.
"This is an innovative experiment in working hours that we can all experience together," he said. "Once the results are proven, we will move forward with a gradual expansion."