"Business is still bad. Consumer sentiment has been frozen since the martial law declaration at the end of last year. Lately, thanks to the people's livelihood recovery consumption coupons, more customers are coming in, so I barely make the monthly rent. It's Chuseok, so I should at least give the four employees a few hundred thousand won each."
On the morning of Sept. 30, a restaurant district along Sinchon-ro in Mapo District, Seoul. A supermarket owner surnamed Yoo, 63, whom we met there, answered this way when asked, "Do you plan to pay holiday bonuses?"
It was the same for the second-generation owner, Yoo Dae-gyeong, 36, who has run a samgyetang restaurant nearby for 20 years. Yoo said, "Sales briefly picked up when the first round of the people's livelihood recovery consumption coupons was issued," and added, "The economy isn't good, but since I have only one employee, I plan to give holiday rice cake money."
The mood in Myeong-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, was not much different. Lim Hyeong-geun, 50, who has run a barbecue restaurant for 10 years, said, "It's been hard since COVID, but I think I should pay bonuses to employees even if I have to take out a loan," adding, "I plan to give red ginseng sets to employees who have worked more than 10 years, and at least ham sets to part-time workers."
But for "solo bosses" with no employees or small family-run shops, the situation was different. A person surnamed Yoon, 69, who has run a restaurant in Myeong-dong with a younger sibling for five years, said, "The operating costs are so burdensome that we can't even think of hiring," adding, "Bonuses don't apply to us." A person surnamed Lee, who runs a barbecue restaurant in Mapo District, also said, "My husband and I run the place together, and since we have no employees, we're not at the stage of discussing rice cake money."
ChosunBiz surveyed 25 restaurants around Sinchon-ro in Mapo District and Myeong-dong in Jongno District that day, and 13 out of 17 restaurants that responded (76.47%) said they "plan to pay Chuseok bonuses." Three, which were solo bosses or family-run businesses, said they "do not plan to pay Chuseok bonuses," and one said it "does not plan to pay bonuses despite having employees." The most common amount cited was "200,000–300,000 won," and some said they would substitute with gift sets such as tuna or ham instead of bonuses.
Unlike microbusiness owners, small and midsize enterprises showed mixed reactions. A person surnamed Min, head of an 18-year-old food SME with 10 employees, said, "We plan to pay small bonuses to express gratitude to our staff," but a caregiver at an SME in the care services sector, a person surnamed Lee, 49, noted, "This year I haven't heard of any bonus plans from the company."
In a "2025 Chuseok fund demand survey" by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises of SMEs with sales of 1 billion–20 billion won and 10–50 employees, only about half (50.6%) said they had plans to pay bonuses. For funding conditions this Chuseok, 43.6% answered "not much different," and 37.9% said "difficult."
Lee Jeong-hee, a professor of economics at Chung-Ang University, explained, "Among self-employed people, the number of so-called 'solo bosses' who don't hire has increased, so the notion of holiday rice cake money has weakened considerably compared with before," but added, "This Chuseok, thanks to the impact of the people's livelihood recovery consumption coupons, self-employed operators with employees and some room in their finances are in a position to pay bonuses." According to Statistics Korea, as of July 2024, there were 4,273,000 self-employed people without employees, accounting for 74.68% of 5,721,000 self-employed.
However, the business environment for microbusiness owners and SMEs is not easy. On top of sluggish domestic demand since COVID-19, various labor issues such as the rise in the minimum wage and the introduction of a four-and-a-half-day workweek have surfaced, adding to the burden.
Song Chi-young, head of the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME), said, "We're in a crisis era of 1 million microbusiness closures," and argued, "We need to enact a microbusiness welfare law, abolish weekly holiday pay, and apply differentiated minimum wages."