Korea Labor Advisory Retainer vs Per-Matter Cost Calculator

Compare a Korean certified labor advisory monthly retainer, hourly engagement, and per-matter proposal over the same consultation, work-rule, discipline, dismissal, and industrial-accident workload. The dedicated bilingual calculator reuses one pure KRW function for workload counts, service hours, retainer coverage, included and excess capacity, out-of-scope matter fees, hourly minimums, urgent surcharges, VAT, expenses, internal collaboration, termination cost, pairwise break-even volume, and demand sensitivity. It does not create a statutory or market-average fee or decide engagement necessity, scope, representation, conflicts, legality, outcomes, tax recovery, or service quality.

Default fees, hours, and coverage percentages are illustrative. Replace them with 6–12 months of workload records and written like-for-like proposals.

Shared comparison assumptions

Apply the same horizon, workload, internal time value, and VAT basis to all three options.

months

1 to 120 months

KRW

Include pay, employer burden, and relevant overhead per person-hour

Expected workload and retainer scope

Use recent records for annual volume and hours, then enter the share actually covered by the written retainer scope.

Routine labor consultation

Routine phone, email, and HR-operation questions

per year
hours
KRW
%

0–100%, based on written scope

Work rules and HR policy updates

Reviewing work rules, policy drafts, and update steps

per year
hours
KRW
%

0–100%, based on written scope

Disciplinary procedure support

Fact review, response, committee, and document support

per year
hours
KRW
%

0–100%, based on written scope

Dismissal and labor commission response

Dismissal review and separately scoped commission matters

per year
hours
KRW
%

0–100%, based on written scope

Industrial accident initial and administrative response

Initial records and separately scoped accident procedures

per year
hours
KRW
%

0–100%, based on written scope

Monthly retainer

Combine the monthly fee, included capacity, excess time, and out-of-scope matters.

KRW
KRW
hours
KRW
hours
hours
KRW
KRW

Hourly engagement

Bill the greater of expected service hours and the contractual monthly minimum.

KRW
KRW
hours

Enter 0 when there is no minimum

hours
hours
KRW
KRW

Per-matter engagement

Combine workload-specific matter fees with the expected urgent-work surcharge.

KRW
%
%
hours
hours
KRW
KRW

12-month total economic cost comparison

Hourly is lowest with these inputs

KRW 145,750 maximum saving

Monthly retainer

KRW 12,201,250

Hourly

KRW 12,114,500

Per matter

KRW 12,260,250

Period workload

28.5 matters · 54 hours

Monthly retainer

Option

KRW 12,201,250

Monthly equivalent: KRW 1,016,771

Cash cost
KRW 11,245,000
Service supply amount
KRW 9,950,000
VAT
KRW 995,000
External expenses
KRW 300,000
Internal collaboration time
19.13 hours
Internal time cost
KRW 956,250
Effective cost per matter
KRW 428,114
Covered / included hours
37 / 36 hours
Unused / excess hours
0 / 1 hours
Excess-hour cost
KRW 150,000
Out-of-scope matter cost
KRW 3,500,000
Estimated unused capacity value
KRW 0

Hourly engagement

Lowest now

KRW 12,114,500

Monthly equivalent: KRW 1,009,542

Cash cost
KRW 11,102,000
Service supply amount
KRW 9,820,000
VAT
KRW 982,000
External expenses
KRW 300,000
Internal collaboration time
20.25 hours
Internal time cost
KRW 1,012,500
Effective cost per matter
KRW 425,070
Expected service hours
54 hours
Minimum / billable hours
0 / 54 hours
Unused minimum hours
0 hours
Hourly service cost
KRW 9,720,000

Per-matter engagement

Option

KRW 12,260,250

Monthly equivalent: KRW 1,021,688

Cash cost
KRW 11,041,500
Service supply amount
KRW 9,765,000
VAT
KRW 976,500
External expenses
KRW 300,000
Internal collaboration time
24.38 hours
Internal time cost
KRW 1,218,750
Effective cost per matter
KRW 430,184
Base matter fees
KRW 9,300,000
Expected urgent surcharge
KRW 465,000
Urgency-adjusted matter fees
KRW 9,765,000

Break-even under the current workload mix

These are annualized volumes where each pair costs the same after scaling all workload groups together.

Monthly retainer ↔ Hourly

30.8 matters/year

This scales all workload groups together while preserving the current mix.

Monthly retainer ↔ Per matter

27.7 matters/year

This scales all workload groups together while preserving the current mix.

Hourly ↔ Per matter

18.3 matters/year

This scales all workload groups together while preserving the current mix.

Workload normalization over the horizon

Partial coverage is a linear planning allocation. The written agreement and labor professional determine actual scope and representation.

Annual and period matters, service hours, retainer-covered hours, and out-of-scope cost by labor advisory workload
WorkloadAnnual mattersPeriod mattersService hoursCovered hoursOut-of-scope cost
Routine labor consultation24242424KRW 0
Work rules and HR policy updates221010KRW 0
Disciplinary procedure support1163KRW 600,000
Dismissal and labor commission response11100KRW 2,000,000
Industrial accident initial and administrative response0.50.540KRW 900,000

Demand sensitivity

Scale the current mix from 0.5× to 2× to see whether the lowest-cost option changes.

Annual matter volume and total economic cost for retainer, hourly, and per-matter options by demand scale
Demand scaleAnnual mattersRetainerHourlyPer matterLowest
0.5×14.25KRW 9,933,125KRW 6,412,250KRW 6,355,125Per matter
1×28.5KRW 12,201,250KRW 12,114,500KRW 12,260,250Hourly
1.5×42.75KRW 17,356,875KRW 17,816,750KRW 18,165,375Monthly retainer
2×57KRW 22,512,500KRW 23,519,000KRW 24,070,500Monthly retainer

Like-for-like quote checklist

  • Align consultation, policy, discipline, dismissal, and accident scope across every quote.
  • Confirm included hours, billing increments, site visits, representation, and expenses in writing.
  • Compare the assigned labor professional, response times, deliverables, urgent support, and substitution terms.
  • Check auto-renewal, minimum term, termination charges, and whether unused hours carry over or expire.
  • Use one VAT basis across quotes and obtain separate tax advice for recovery or deductibility.

Korea 2026 planning tool · official sources checked 2026-08-27. Results are cost scenarios, not advice on engagement necessity, matter fit, legal outcomes, or service quality.

Related calculators

Why compare a Korean labor advisory retainer, hourly work, and per-matter fees?

A monthly retainer alone does not reveal the complete cost of labor and HR advice.
Routine questions may be included while a full work-rule revision, disciplinary procedure, dismissal review, Labor Relations Commission representation, or industrial-accident response is billed separately.
Two proposals with the same monthly label can therefore cover very different work.
A per-matter engagement avoids a recurring fee, but urgent surcharges and the client team’s time for collecting records, meetings, approvals, and repeated explanations can still be material.

This Korea-based 2026 calculator aligns recent workload records with actual written proposals, then compares cash cost and internal time under three billing models.
The Certified Public Labor Attorney Act defines professional duties but does not set a national fee schedule, recommended monthly retainer, standard included capacity, or market-average matter fee.
Every default fee, hour, matter count, and coverage percentage is an illustrative input for checking the mathematics, not an official or market benchmark.

Decisions this calculator can support

  • Check whether paid retainer capacity is consistently unused.
  • Budget separately scoped discipline, dismissal, commission, or accident matters.
  • Compare an hourly minimum with expected service hours and per-matter urgency charges.
  • Model higher consultation or policy-update demand before expansion or reorganization.
  • Prepare one like-for-like scope table for two or more Korean labor firms.

Collect 6–12 months of evidence before entering fees

A useful comparison starts with workload records, not a price list.
Gather email subjects, advice logs, work-rule revisions, disciplinary and dismissal reviews, accident reports, and commission matters, then remove duplicates.
Decide whether a thread of related emails is one matter and whether preliminary advice and later representation belong to one scope or two.
Apply the same counting rule to every proposal.

Values from internal records

  • Annual volume and seasonal concentration by workload.
  • Expected professional service hours per matter.
  • Client-team hours for records, meetings, and approvals.
  • The evidenced share of work treated as urgent.

Values from each written proposal

  • Monthly fee, included hours, and excess billing increment.
  • Included, partly included, and excluded workload groups.
  • Hourly rate and any monthly minimum.
  • Matter fees, urgent surcharge, travel, and document expenses.
  • Minimum term, renewal, termination, closeout, and handover terms.

Align scope before comparing totals. A retainer covering only routine advice is not comparable with a per-matter quote that includes commission representation.
Match assigned personnel, response time, review rounds, deliverables, visits, representation, and follow-up on the same rows before entering money.

Understand the five workload groups and retainer coverage

The calculator separates routine consultation, work-rule and HR policy updates, disciplinary procedure support, dismissal and Labor Relations Commission response, and industrial-accident initial or administrative response.
Annual volume accepts decimals such as 0.5 to represent a long-run expectation for a matter that occurs every other year.
Service hours refer to planned professional or billable time, not the client team’s internal time.
The same workload-specific fee drives the standalone per-matter option and the portion excluded from the retainer.

Evidence and retainer-scope questions for each Korean labor advisory workload
WorkloadVolume evidenceScope questionIllustrative coverage
Routine consultationEmail, call, and message logWhat count, time, and answer format are included?100%
Work rules and HR policyRevision history and planned policiesAre drafting, consultation, and filing all covered?100%
Disciplinary supportInvestigation, response, and committee casesDoes scope stop at document review or include attendance?50%
Dismissal and commission responseDismissal reviews and remedy mattersHow are preliminary review and representation priced?0%
Industrial accident responseReports, benefit, and administrative recordsWhere do initial advice, documents, and agency response separate?0%

A 50% coverage input does not mean half a disciplinary matter occurs.
It is a planning allocation for a matter where an initial document review may be included but fact investigation, committee attendance, or follow-up is separately billed.
If the actual price is not proportional, obtain a separate quote and run more than one scenario instead of treating the percentage as a legal or contractual conclusion.

How the three cost equations work

Monthly retainer

Add setup, monthly fees, excess covered hours, out-of-scope matter fees, and any planned termination charge.
Unused capacity value allocates the monthly fee in proportion to unused included hours, but it is not a refund or a valuation of service quality.

Hourly engagement

Multiply workload volume by service hours per matter, then bill the greater of expected hours and the contractual monthly minimum.
The difference between minimum and expected hours is shown as unused minimum capacity.

Per-matter engagement

Multiply each workload’s volume by its actual matter fee and add the expected urgent surcharge.
Set the urgent share or surcharge to 0% when the proposal has no evidenced urgent charge.

VAT, expenses, and internal time

When fee inputs are VAT-exclusive supply amounts, the calculator applies the 10% rate in VAT Act Article 30 to service fees only.
Annual travel, records, and similar expenses are entered as cash amounts and are not taxed again.
Fixed monthly client time and internal hours per matter are multiplied by the loaded internal hourly cost and added as opportunity cost.
The calculator does not determine input VAT recovery, deductible expenses, corporate or income tax effects, or tax-invoice compliance.

Worked 12-month example

The illustrative defaults assume 24 routine consultations, two policy updates, one disciplinary matter, one dismissal matter, and 0.5 industrial-accident matter per year.
That produces 28.5 matters and 54 expected service hours over twelve months.
Retainer-covered work uses 37 hours against 36 included hours, creating one excess hour and KRW 3,500,000 of out-of-scope matter fees.

Monthly retainer

KRW 12,201,250

Includes 36 contracted hours, one excess hour, and KRW 3.5 million of out-of-scope work.

Hourly engagement

KRW 12,114,500

Values 54 expected service hours at the illustrative hourly fee.

Per-matter engagement

KRW 12,260,250

Includes KRW 9.3 million of base matter fees and KRW 465,000 of expected urgency surcharge.

Hourly is the lowest option in this example, but its advantage over the highest option is only KRW 145,750.
That small difference does not establish that hourly work is better after considering response time, personnel continuity, deliverables, urgent coverage, and representation scope.
With zero matters the per-matter option is lowest, while doubling the same workload mix makes the retainer lowest, illustrating fixed-cost and capacity behavior rather than a universal recommendation.

Read break-even volume as a mix-specific scenario

The reported break-even is not the cost of adding one routine consultation.
It preserves the entered ratio of consultation, policy, discipline, dismissal, and accident work, then scales every annual volume by the same factor.
Under the illustrative defaults, per-matter and hourly costs cross near 18.3 matters per year, retainer and per-matter costs near 27.7 matters, and retainer and hourly costs near 30.8 matters.

Do not turn a crossover into an automatic contract threshold

  • Change the workload mix when high-hour dismissal or accident matters become more likely.
  • Cost slopes change when retainer capacity is exhausted or an hourly minimum stops binding.
  • Use the sensitivity table to inspect multiple roots or a coincident cost range.
  • When every workload is zero, no mix exists and volume break-even is not applicable.
  • Near a crossover, differences in scope and delivery can matter more than a small modeled fee difference.

Practical planning scenarios

Review unused capacity before renewal

When covered work remains below included capacity, use unused hours and the capacity allocation as negotiation evidence.
The value is not refundable by itself, but it can support questions about a smaller tier, carryover, or recurring deliverables such as policy reviews.

Model expansion or HR-policy change

Before adding a workplace, shift system, or new evaluation plan, increase the workload groups that will actually change.
A uniform 2× sensitivity is useful for orientation, but a policy-heavy scenario should change policy and consultation rows rather than every matter equally.

Build a reserve for rare high-impact matters

A 0.5 annual volume can spread a matter expected every other year into a planning budget.
Actual cash will still concentrate in the month a dismissal, commission, or accident matter occurs, so keep a separate emergency reserve based on the written matter quote and urgency terms.

Quote-comparison checklist and cautions

  1. Define one matter. State when a consultation, policy update, disciplinary procedure, or commission matter begins and ends.
  2. Separate advice from representation. Confirm whether review, drafting, attendance, representation, and visits share one scope.
  3. Check hourly increments. Minute-based, 30-minute, or one-hour minimum billing can change the hourly result.
  4. Value retained client work. Records, fact confirmation, approval, and repeated explanation do not become free because a professional is engaged.
  5. Normalize the tax basis. Do not mix VAT-exclusive supply amounts with VAT-inclusive quotes.
  6. Review exit economics. Include a minimum term, auto-renewal, termination charge, data return, and handover cost only when expected within the horizon.
  7. Score non-price factors separately. Compare experience, responsiveness, conflicts, security, deliverables, and communication outside the cost model.

Important: A lower modeled cost does not decide whether a certified labor attorney is needed, whether a person can accept a matter, whether representation is permitted, whether conduct is lawful, whether a claim will succeed, or whether service quality is adequate.
Do not treat noncompliance, worker protection, or safety duties as a cost-saving option, and prioritize evidence preservation and qualified help in an urgent matter.

Frequently asked questions

Does the calculator use a statutory or nationwide average labor advisory fee?

No. Korean law defines professional duties but does not provide a monthly, hourly, or matter-fee schedule for this comparison. Replace every illustrative default with actual written proposals.

What does 50% retainer coverage mean?

It is a planning allocation when only part of a workload is included. When the real price is not proportional, obtain separate included and excluded quotes and run additional scenarios.

Is every phone call one consultation matter?

There is no universal counting rule. Define whether related messages form one matter, document the rule, and apply it consistently to every proposal.

Should the 10% VAT switch always be on?

No. Turn it on only when fee inputs are VAT-exclusive supply amounts. Turn it off for VAT-inclusive fees and obtain separate tax advice on recovery or deductibility.

Can the estimated unused capacity value be refunded?

Not based on this calculation. It is an allocation of the monthly fee to unused hours, not a contractual receivable. The agreement controls carryover, refunds, and substitute deliverables.

Should the company select the lowest result?

Not automatically. Scope, assigned personnel, response time, deliverables, urgent support, conflicts, and termination terms can outweigh a small modeled cost difference.

Official Korean sources and update boundary

On August 27, 2026, the National Law Information Center OPEN API returned the Certified Public Labor Attorney Act as current law ID 000134, MST 243059, the Enforcement Decree as current law ID 002366, MST 265549, and the VAT Act as current law ID 001571, MST 276117.
Certified Public Labor Attorney Act Article 2 covers labor-law filings and remedies, document preparation and confirmation, consultation and guidance, labor-management diagnosis, private mediation or arbitration, and social-insurance work.
Articles 12 and 13 preserve fair performance and prohibited-conduct boundaries, while Enforcement Decree Article 2 links covered labor and social-insurance statutes to annexes.
VAT Act Articles 11, 30, and 31 provide the service-supply and 10% transaction-tax framework used by the optional VAT input.
None of these provisions supplies a market fee, a recommended contract, or a result for a specific matter.

Recheck the data constants, tests, and both language guides when these laws, the 10% rate, or the calculator’s scope assumptions change.
Market proposals can change much faster than statutes, so obtain fresh written quotes at every renewal.

Request new quotes with one aligned scope table

Replace the illustrative inputs with recent records and written proposals, then save low, base, and high-demand scenarios.
Use the workload, included-capacity, excess-cost, and break-even outputs to ask at least two Korean labor firms for the same scope and contract terms.