Compare a farm workforce by season cost
A lower hourly wage does not necessarily produce the lowest seasonal labor budget.
Direct hiring also involves contracted wages, accommodation, meals, insurance, airfare responsibilities, registration, medical checks and setup.
If the harvest is short or rain reduces actual work days, agreed paid hours may remain payable and the cost per worker-day can increase.
A farm with steady work and suitable accommodation may reach a different conclusion.
This calculator helps farm operators and family members planning the next harvest compare direct seasonal hiring, a public seasonal service run by an agricultural cooperative, and domestic daily labor.
All methods use the same number of workers, work days and daily hours, assuming equal productivity.
Results use South Korean rules for 2026, not immigration or employment rules in another country.
After reviewing the budget, confirm allocation, accommodation and available dates before deciding how to obtain labor.
What the three methods include
Direct hiring
Contracted wages, accommodation, meals, insurance and one-time setup are combined with transport per actual worker-day.
Only verified, lawful accommodation recovery is subtracted separately.
Public service
The cooperative employs the workers and the farm pays for the days used.
Enter the local cooperative's written rate and any excluded additional costs.
Domestic daily labor
Basic daily wages, placement fees and extra employer costs are multiplied by worker-days.
Add any insurance, meals, transport or contractual premiums outside the quoted wage.
Local service rates and daily wages are not stored as national tariffs.
The initial amounts are a fictional worked example, not market prices or an official quotation.
A public rate or domestic basic wage of zero means a missing quote, not free labor.
The calculator withholds the overall lowest-cost comparison until both alternatives have a quote.
Enter work days and contract paid hours separately
Actual work and payable basic hours
Workers are assumed to follow the same schedule, and daily work hours exclude breaks.
For each of 3–8 months, enter actual work days per worker, contract paid basic hours, and night hours within the actual work.
Paid basic hours already include all actual basic work hours and any additional paid non-working hours guaranteed by the contract.
Basic pay for night work is already included, so night hours are not added to basic pay a second time.
For 20 work days at 8 hours a day with 208 basic hours payable under the contract, enter 208 paid hours.
The remaining 48 hours are reported as paid non-working time, a subset of basic wages rather than an additional expense.
A rainy day does not automatically reduce contracted paid hours.
Confirm the reason for the interruption, contractual obligations and actual payment duties before changing the hours.
Do not automatically apply the general 209-hour monthly conversion, which assumes a 40-hour week and 8 hours of paid weekly rest, to every agricultural job.
Each monthly row supports 0–31 work days and up to 744 paid hours; daily hours range from 1–12 in half-hour increments.
Paid hours below actual hours, or night hours above actual hours, withhold results.
Check the actual number of days in each calendar month and enter at least one work day across the season.
Month numbers are planning rows, not visa dates; this version supports complete months within 2026 only.
Korean minimum wage and agricultural night work
Minimum hourly wage: KRW 10,320
The applicable period is 2026-01-01–2026-12-31, with KRW 82,560 for eight basic hours.
The entered hourly wage and domestic basic daily wage converted to an hourly amount must meet this floor.
A public service fee charged to a farm is not itself a worker's wage, so the same fee floor is not imposed.
Article 63 and night premiums
Article 63 excludes qualifying agricultural work from working-time, break and holiday provisions.
Night work is 22:00–06:00; establishments with five or more regular workers use the 50% additional premium under Article 56(3).
For four or fewer, the statutory premium is modeled as 0%; add more favorable contractual payments separately.
A farm name alone does not establish Article 63 coverage.
Check the actual duties, including whether sorting or processing work qualifies, before using this model.
Regular establishment size is not merely the number of seasonal workers in this plan; confirm the applicable headcount calculation for the whole establishment.
If night work is entered but the size is unconfirmed, results are withheld.
The model assumes the agreed single hourly wage also equals the ordinary hourly wage; other ordinary-wage components require separate payroll review.
Formulas and the meaning of a worker-day
Basic pay and additional night pay
Basic wages = workers × total monthly paid basic hours × hourly wage.
Basic wages and night premiums are each rounded to whole KRW by month and then summed, as a budget display convention.
Additional night pay = workers × night hours × hourly wage × applicable premium rate.
Night basic hours are already in basic pay; only the additional premium is added.
Direct-hire net budget
Net cost = basic wages + night premiums + monthly accommodation, meals, insurance and other costs + setup + daily transport − verified recovery.
Setup includes airfare, registration and medical costs per worker, multiplied by headcount, plus shared farm setup once.
Alternatives and unit costs
Public cost = workers × work days × (daily fee + daily extras).
Domestic cost = workers × work days × (basic daily wage + placement fee + extra burden).
Cost per worker-day = each net season total ÷ (workers × actual work days).
A worker-day is one person working for one day; two people working 100 days supply 200 worker-days.
It is not the cost of one person for an entire season.
The comparison assumes equal hours and productivity, and does not value skill differences, harvest losses, quality or interpreting needs.
Unit costs are rounded only for display; multiplying a displayed unit cost may not reproduce the exact total.
Crossover days with the same fixed contract
Let K be fixed net cost, N headcount, U the alternative cost per worker-day, and T direct-hire transport per worker-day.
The theoretical crossing point is K / [N × (U − T)], normally requiring U greater than T.
Round up to the first whole work day on which direct hiring is no more expensive.
If both the margin and fixed cost are zero, there is a tie from the first feasible day; a nonpositive margin with remaining fixed cost cannot reach a crossover.
Contract length, paid hours, night hours, accommodation, insurance and setup remain fixed.
Increasing work days uses hours already paid for, with only daily transport changing.
Monthly capacity is the smaller of 31 days and the whole-number paid-hours / daily-hours ratio, summed across months.
Entered night hours also establish a minimum feasible number of days in each month.
A crossing outside this range is reported as not reached within the current contract.
Extending the contract, changing guaranteed wages or being unable to redistribute work requires a new calculation; actual crop schedules and service availability can prevent the assumed reallocation.
Worked example: two workers, five months, 100 work days
Assume 20 days per month, 8 hours per day, 208 paid basic hours per month, no night work, and KRW 10,320 hourly.
Monthly costs per worker are accommodation KRW 200,000, meals KRW 100,000 and insurance KRW 50,000; setup is KRW 800,000 per worker plus KRW 500,000 shared.
Transport is KRW 5,000 per worker-day, with no accommodation recovery.
Public service at KRW 110,000 and domestic basic wages of KRW 130,000 plus a KRW 10,000 placement fee per worker-day are all fictional example prices.
Net season costs and unit costs for a hypothetical 200 worker-day season, in KRW| Method | Net season cost | Per worker-day |
|---|
| Direct hiring | 28,065,600 | 140,328 |
| Public service | 22,000,000 | 110,000 |
| Domestic daily labor | 28,000,000 | 140,000 |
Basic wages are KRW 21,465,600, including KRW 4,953,600 for paid non-working time.
Initial costs of KRW 2,100,000 plus KRW 5,193,120 each month give direct hiring a KRW 6,065,600 excess over public service.
With fixed net cost KRW 27,065,600 and capacity of 130 days, public crossover is day 129 and domestic crossover day 101.
At 129 days, direct cost is KRW 28,355,600 versus public KRW 28,380,000; at 128 days, direct KRW 28,345,600 still exceeds public KRW 28,160,000.
These figures are not local price claims or guaranteed savings.
Recovery, insurance and monthly cash flow
Do not make arbitrary wage deductions
Check the full-payment principle in Article 43, local guidelines, worker consent and a lawful settlement method.
Checking a box does not establish legal permission to deduct wages.
Recovery is limited here to entered accommodation plus meal expenditure; this input restriction is not a statutory deduction ceiling.
Use zero recovery where consent or the applicable local rule remains unclear.
In the example, verified lawful recovery of KRW 100,000 per worker per month would lower five-month net cost for two workers by KRW 1,000,000 without changing gross basic wages.
Enter the actual employer insurance cost from the relevant contract or notice; the model does not assume identical social-insurance rates for every foreign worker.
The cash table places setup before the contract and monthly outflows and recovery in the same month; it does not establish actual payment dates.
Prepaid airfare, accommodation deposits or delayed recovery can require more working capital than the net cost suggests.
Keep refundable deposits separate from consumed setup expenditure.
Using the comparison for your farm
- Map monthly work days from the crop calendar, then set common headcount and daily hours.
- Check the standard contract with the municipality and enter actual payable basic hours and night-work conditions.
- Confirm accommodation, meals, insurance and airfare responsibilities, separating shared setup from daily transport.
- Obtain written quotes for the same hours and dates from the cooperative and rural labor center.
- Review totals, unit costs, crossover days and monthly cash; save the TXT budget for allocation or reservation discussions.
Short concentrated harvest
Inspect the wages remaining in months with little or no work.
Also check whether public service dates can actually be reserved and what cancellation terms apply.
Continuous work across crops
More actual worker-days can spread the same fixed contract costs.
Check that monthly work stays within paid hours and assess worker skills and accommodation management alongside price.
Frequently asked questions
Why enter the public service rate manually?
Included hours, transport, meals and extra charges can differ by local cooperative and arrangement.
Use a written quote for matching work hours and dates, and check actual availability.
Can rainy days automatically reduce wages?
No automatic reduction is made.
Confirm the cause, payment obligations and contract before changing payable hours.
Reducing work days while retaining contract paid hours shows the resulting unused wage budget.
Does agricultural work remove night premiums?
Do not confuse the working-time, break and holiday exclusions in Article 63 with night premiums.
The model applies 50% for five or more regular workers.
For four or fewer, put additional contractual payments into other monthly costs.
Is worker consent alone enough for recovery?
The calculator does not decide that every consented deduction is lawful.
Check local guidelines and a settlement method consistent with full wage payment.
The cost-based input cap is not a statutory limit ruling.
Should I apply the E-9 departure insurance 8.3% rate?
Do not automatically transfer an E-9 departure-maturity insurance calculation to an E-8 seasonal budget.
Confirm the applicable policies, enrollment and actual employer premium with the authority and insurer.
Does a crossover day tell me how long to extend hiring?
It keeps the existing wages, night hours, duration and overhead fixed.
An extension or infeasible monthly reallocation requires recalculation.
It does not confirm a service reservation or hiring approval.
Are daily-worker taxes and insurance calculated automatically?
No individual employment, tax or insurance status is determined here.
Add verified employer costs beyond basic wages, and check placement-fee legality and applicable caps separately.
Can I plan a season crossing into 2027?
This version covers complete months within 2026.
A later year, partial month, or mid-month arrival or departure needs the applicable minimum wage and actual payable period checked separately.
Official sources and update schedule
Checked 2026-10-28 for Korean rules in 2026.
Direct National Law Information API checks returned current Labor Standards Act MST285279, law ID001872, Act 21533, effective 2026-10-08, Articles 11, 43, 56 and 63.
Checks also covered Enforcement Decree MST270551, effective 2025-10-23, Article 7, and Minimum Wage Act MST218303, law ID000129, effective 2020-05-26, Article 6.
Future scheduled provisions are not used as current rules.
Recheck minimum wages annually, seasonal operating rules and allocation each half-year, and accommodation recovery, insurance, airfare responsibilities and work conditions before contracting.
This budget does not determine visas, allocation eligibility, absconding, wage arrears, shutdown allowances, severance or subsidies.
Turn the budget into an allocation or reservation discussion
For direct hiring, ask the municipal seasonal-worker team about allocation, standard contracts and safe accommodation.
For public service, send the local cooperative your dates, headcount and hours to confirm rates and availability.
For domestic daily labor, request a cost breakdown from the rural labor center.
Use the saved review sheet to resolve missing evidence before committing wages and setup funds.
For the separate E-9 settlement issue, use the departure insurance and severance gap calculator.
Review equipment and contracted field work separately with the farm machinery rental versus custom work calculator.