A budget of 27.6 billion won has been allocated for next year's pilot project to introduce a 4.5-day workweek. President Lee Jae-myung aims to shorten the actual working hours of workers in Korea by introducing a 4.5-day workweek and other measures.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) said on the 3rd that the 2026 budget for the ministry was finalized at 37.6761 trillion won. That is up 6.6% (233.09 billion won) from this year's main budget (2.3309 trillion won). It also increased by 60.4 billion won during the National Assembly review compared with the original government proposal.
The government plans to carry out a pilot project next year called the "work-life balance+4.5 project." It will provide a set amount per worker to 150–200 business sites that introduce a 4.5-day workweek through labor-management agreement. A budget of 1.7 billion won has also been set aside for 4.5-day workweek-focused consulting. Introducing a 4.5-day workweek is one task toward fulfilling the Lee Jae-myung administration's policy goal of "reducing Korea's annual actual working hours to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average."
A significant portion of the budget was also allocated to creating safer workplaces. A total of 1.56 trillion won was set, up 260 billion won from this year's related budget. ▲ "safe workplace guardians" 44.6 billion won ▲ rewards for reporting unsafe workplaces 11.1 billion won ▲ corporate safety and health disclosure system 1 billion won ▲ support for accident prevention facilities at small business sites 43.3 billion won ▲ support for industrial accident hospitals 122.8 billion won ▲ industrial safety research and development (R&D) 1.6 billion won were newly established projects.
Funding to support labor unions, which had been cut under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, was also restored. The budget to support labor organizations and nonprofit corporations is 15.8 billion won, up 10.2 billion won during the National Assembly review. By labor organization, 5.1 billion won will be invested in improving aging facilities of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, and 5.1 billion won will be invested in deposit assistance for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.
In addition, budget items such as projects related to monitoring employment services to prevent damage from false job advertisements, discussed in the wake of the "Cambodia incident," were newly reflected during the National Assembly review.