The government and labor and management groups gathered in one place and agreed to join forces to spread a work-life balance culture.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups held the "2025 Korea work-life balance outstanding corporations awards" on the 27th with the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) and others, selecting 183 corporations that have led the way in work-family balance and the adoption of flexible work.
The Korea work-life balance outstanding corporations, selected since last year, recognizes corporations that have shown strong results in combining work and child care, reducing working hours, flexible work, and leave. Selected corporations receive benefits such as extra points in public procurement, deferrals of regular labor inspections and tax audits, and preferential treatment in immigration, technology guarantees, and credit guarantees.
As examples of support for combining work and child care, ▲ Aju Continuum ▲ Between Space ▲ Xcell Therapeutics were selected. As examples of reducing working hours, ▲ Appnote ▲ EGM&C ▲ Shinsegae were selected. For the use of flexible work, ▲ Janice ▲ LIG Nex1 ▲ The Pict were chosen.
To spread a work-life balance culture, the government included measures to strengthen support for corporations in next year's budget proposal.
The support plan includes raising the monthly cap on substitute labor subsidies for small and midsize enterprises to ease staffing burdens when parental leave is used, from up to 1.2 million won to 1.4 million won, and increasing the monthly cap on job-sharing support for parental leave from up to 200,000 won to 600,000 won.
The government decided to pay a monthly incentive of 300,000 won to corporations that introduce the "10 a.m. start for parents" system, which allows workers with young children to reduce their working time by one hour a day without a pay cut.
For small and midsize enterprises that, through labor-management agreements, shorten actual working hours by adopting measures such as a 4.5-day workweek, the government will provide up to 600,000 won per worker per month, and up to 800,000 won per month if they make new hires, under the "Work-life balance+ 4.5 project."
In addition, to promote the adoption of flexible work, corporations that use staggered hours or remote work at least four times a month will receive incentives of up to 600,000 won per worker per month. The government will support expenses and fees for installing systems needed to introduce flexible work up to 10 million won, within a range of 80% to 100%.
To ensure there are no cases in which small and midsize enterprises fail to use flexible work or work-family balance programs because they do not know about them or find them too complicated, the government will also establish a new "(tentative name) work-life balance network construction and operation project." It plans to hold traveling briefings in industrial complexes and other areas dense with small and midsize enterprises and to promote links to various government support programs.
Park Yong-sun, director general for small and medium enterprise policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "For Korea to become an advanced nation in work-life balance, work-life balance must be supported at small and midsize enterprises, which account for 80% of total employment," and added, "We will consult with the relevant ministries and consider necessary support measures so that many small and midsize enterprises grow together with their workers and, further, so that all of Korea becomes a happy workplace."