Review Korea’s preceding-month daily headcount, operating days, below-five day-count overrides and uncertain-worker inclusion scenarios. Save the evidence ledger before reviewing individual pay or leave rights.
Korea 2026 · Official sources verified October 13, 2026. Compare the preceding month’s daily headcount and day-count overrides. The initial ledger has no operating days; enter actual records.
Verification or separate requirements: verdict withheld
Some Labor Standards Act rules still apply below five. This result does not establish individual pay, leave or dismissal rights or legality. Other laws’ headcount rules and the ten-employee work-rule threshold require separate assessment.
Check uncertain workers and ★ dates first. Save the ledger, notes and reasons for withholding a verdict for review with payroll or an adviser. Saving does not file or send an inquiry.
Korean Labor Standards Act coverage is not determined simply by today’s attendance or the total number of names on payroll.
General coverage requires a review of workers used on each operating day during the assessment period before the relevant event.
Shift work, part-time schedules and multiple branches can make a small workplace’s apparent size differ from the statutory calculation.
This calculator compares the worker-day formula and day-count overrides in Enforcement Decree Article 7-2 under Korean 2026 rules.
It prepares a ledger before reviewing overtime premiums, shutdown allowance or general dismissal coverage.
Employers can check the scale assumption before processing payroll, while workers can prepare evidence for a discussion with payroll or a labor adviser.
The result is a coverage candidate conditional on the facts entered.
It does not decide employee status, business-unit independence, treatment of leave or suspension, individual payment entitlement or dismissal legality.
Incomplete facts produce a withheld verdict rather than an assumed zero headcount.
The statutory assessment period is the month before the event, excluding the event date itself.
For an event on October 13, 2026, the tool proposes September 13 through October 12, 2026.
It does not automatically use the previous calendar month or a fixed 30-day denominator.
Where the business has existed for less than one month, assess the period following its establishment.
An October 13 event and an October 7 establishment date produce a proposed October 7–12 ledger.
Enter establishment of the actual business, not an individual worker’s hire date.
If the prior month has no matching date, the tool proposes its final day as the start.
That calendar adjustment does not establish the legal interpretation of a month-end period.
Verify the actual statutory period before selecting ledger confirmation; a different confirmed period requires separate review.
Operating days are days on which the assessed business actually operated within the same period.
A Saturday, Sunday or public holiday is not automatically a closed day.
Match a weekend-opening store or a weekday-closing business to its records, and distinguish a worker’s rest day from closure of the business itself.
With no operating days there is no denominator, so the calculator withholds the headcount result.
Enter the workers whose inclusion on that date has been verified, after removing verified exclusions.
Do not exclude someone solely because they are regular, fixed-term, part-time or daily-employed.
Do not convert a qualifying part-time worker into a fraction of a person based on hours.
These workers are additional to, and must not overlap, the confirmed count.
Use this field for unresolved employee status, leave or suspension treatment, or unclear contractual work obligations.
The tool compares exclusion of all such workers with inclusion of all; entering them does not approve their classification.
Record workers already removed from the confirmed included count after verifying their exclusion.
This preserves evidence for matters such as dispatched workers or non-working rest-day workers.
The field is evidence only and is not subtracted again, preventing double subtraction.
Record the relevant hire or departure date, schedule, rest-day agreement, leave or dispatch evidence.
A note is required on any date with uncertain or already excluded workers.
Until the business unit and complete period ledger are verified, arithmetic scenarios do not establish a primary verdict.
Counts on non-operating days must be zero.
Counts must be nonnegative integers, and confirmed plus uncertain workers on one date cannot exceed the tool limit of 100,000.
This limit is an input safeguard, not a statutory cap.
Employee names and personal contact details are unnecessary; use a non-identifying record reference and the classification basis.
Decree Article 7-2(4) includes workers used by the assessed business regardless of employment type.
A part-time worker counts as a person on dates on which inclusion is appropriate, subject first to employee status under Labor Standards Act Article 2.
Daily workers and workers contracted for specific weekdays require a date-by-date review of their use and agreed working conditions.
Supreme Court case 2020Do16228, decided June 15, 2023, excludes workers who did not actually work on a guaranteed weekly rest day from worker-days and daily headcount.
Case 2023Da275998, decided January 25, 2024, also addresses days guaranteed as rest days without a duty to work under a contract or other rules, including rotating rest schedules.
Do not include every resting employee on every date solely because the employment relationship continues.
Equally, do not extend these judgments automatically to every vacation, absence or suspension and count only physical attendance.
Verify the duty to work and actual use on the date; keep unresolved classifications in a scenario for review.
Dispatched workers are excluded at the user business by Decree Article 7-2(4).
A business employing only cohabiting relatives is excluded from general Article 11 coverage; where an unrelated worker is also employed, review cohabiting relatives who are themselves employees for inclusion.
Do not classify owners, officers, contractor personnel or workers at different establishments from titles or registration numbers alone.
Worker-days are the sum of included workers across operating days, not the total number of different employees.
The same worker may be counted once on each operating date where inclusion is appropriate.
Scenario A uses confirmed workers; scenario B adds all uncertain workers independently.
M = worker-days ÷ operating days D
B = operating days with fewer than 5 included workers
The rule distinguishes fewer than half from at least half.
With 20 operating days, 9 below-five days are fewer than half, while 10 are exactly half and belong to the at-least-half branch.
Describing the test as “half or less” or rounding the percentage before comparison can reverse the outcome.
High headcount on some dates may raise the average, while the day-count override still points below five.
An average of 6 does not settle coverage on its own.
Check how many operating days remain below five.
For 21 operating days, half is 10.5 days.
Ten below-five days are fewer than half; eleven are at least half.
The calculator compares twice the integer day count to preserve this boundary.
The below-five date list includes operating days only.
Distinguish closed dates omitted from the denominator from operating dates with fewer than five included workers.
A ★ marks a date that crosses five when uncertain workers are included, helping prioritize records review.
Number inputs retain the draft while editing, including comma entry and deletion.
Empty or invalid counts withhold the result rather than quietly becoming zero workers.
Evidence includes employment contracts, schedules, rest-day agreements, hire/departure records, leave/suspension records and dispatch documents alongside payroll.
These fictional examples assume a general workplace with all relevant facts verified.
Each has 20 operating days, with closed days excluded from worker-days and the denominator.
Identical numbers can still require a different review if the classification basis or operating dates are incorrect.
| Daily composition | Worker-days | Average | Below-five days / ratio | Threshold candidate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 days at 5 + 9 days at 4 | 91 | 4.55 | 9 / 45% | Coverage · upward override |
| 10 days at 8 + 10 days at 4 | 120 | 6 | 10 / 50% | Below five · downward override |
| All 20 days at 5 | 100 | 5 | 0 / 0% | Coverage · no override |
In the first example, 5 × 11 + 4 × 9 = 91 and 91 ÷ 20 = 4.55, but the 45% below-five ratio gives a coverage candidate.
In the second, 8 × 10 + 4 × 10 = 120 and 120 ÷ 20 = 6, but the 50% below-five ratio gives a below-five candidate.
Using only the average would reverse the interpretation of both examples.
Excluding the uncertain worker gives 80 worker-days, an average of 4 and 20 below-five days.
Including the worker gives 100 worker-days, an average of 5 and zero below-five days.
Twenty dates cross the daily threshold, so employee status or date-specific inclusion materially affects the result.
Do not average the two scenarios or choose whichever outcome is preferable.
A and B assume different classifications are verified.
If only some uncertain workers or dates qualify, move those counts to confirmed inclusion or verified exclusion and recalculate.
Matching threshold results in both scenarios do not automatically verify the employment facts.
The calculator withholds the primary verdict whenever uncertain workers remain, even where the threshold is stable.
A stable numerical boundary and a settled legal classification are separate findings.
Where hire/departure dates or shift arrangements differ, match the daily records before changing a whole month at once.
Bulk entry is a convenience for repeated, verified counts.
Do not invent a work obligation or rest-day agreement that the records do not establish; keep unresolved facts in notes.
Use the ledger to discuss the scale assumption for a shift-working store or to compare the employer’s and worker’s records.
Shutdown allowance and dismissal rules also depend on separate facts such as responsibility, notice and employee status.
This headcount result does not establish an amount or legality.
Decree Article 7-2(3) provides a preceding continuous-year, month-by-month rule for Articles 60–62, except the Article 60(2) annual-leave portion.
Selecting annual leave gives one-month reference statistics and withholds the primary verdict.
Individual attendance, continuous service and contractual hours still require separate review.
A below-five candidate does not mean the entire Labor Standards Act is inapplicable.
Article 11(2) and Enforcement Decree Annex 1 retain some provisions for workplaces with four or fewer workers.
Minimum wage, retirement benefits and other statutes must be assessed using their own rules and contractual context.
The Article 93 ten-employee work-rule threshold, employment tax credits, disability-employment obligations and serious-accident legislation are outside this five-employee calculation.
Addresses or business registration numbers alone do not settle whether branches should be combined.
Review actual organizational, personnel and accounting arrangements for the relevant law.
No.
If fewer than half the operating days are below five, the day-count override can produce a coverage candidate despite a lower average.
Do not round the average to five; examine worker-days and below-five days together.
Neither the roster total nor physical attendance alone determines inclusion.
Check the duty to work, guaranteed rest days and actual use on each date.
Record unresolved classifications as uncertain workers with a basis note.
Do not divide headcount by working-hour ratios.
The Decree includes part-time and other workers regardless of employment type.
Verify date-specific inclusion from contracts and work/rest records, particularly for specific-weekday or daily employment.
The verified judgments address workers not actually working on days guaranteed as rest days without a duty to work.
Do not automatically extend that rule to every vacation or suspension.
Where the leave reason, continuing relationship or work obligation is unresolved, keep a scenario and obtain a records review.
A cohabiting-relative-only business is an Article 11 exclusion, but review cohabiting relatives who are employees alongside an unrelated worker for inclusion.
Dispatched workers are excluded at the user workplace under Article 7-2(4).
Verify the actual employment and dispatch arrangements rather than relying on labels.
No.
Confirmed included counts already remove those exclusions, while the excluded field preserves evidence.
Enter the fields consistently so the same workers are not subtracted twice.
Workplace scale is one prerequisite.
Review the longer annual-leave rule and Article 60(2) exception, individual attendance/service/hours, and other premium-pay or shutdown-allowance conditions.
This calculator does not implement the preceding continuous-year annual-leave assessment.
TXT download and printing organize the current inputs and scenarios.
They do not send an inquiry or submit a complaint.
Complete the actual records review and next steps yourself; mark the inquiry completed only after making it.
Official sources were verified October 13, 2026 (2026-10-13).
The Labor Standards Act review uses Articles 2 and 11, MST 285279, Act No. 21533, effective October 8, 2026 (2026-10-08).
The Decree review uses Articles 7 and 7-2 and Annex 1, MST 270551, Presidential Decree No. 35436, effective October 23, 2025 (2025-10-23).
Events after verification assume those rules continue; recheck the provisions effective on the event date.
The administrative interpretation is Ministry of Employment and Labor material published by the National Law Information Center, not a separate Ministry of Government Legislation decision.
Read its factual context alongside subsequent judgments and verify the current treatment of rest, leave, suspension, specific-day employment and business units with the responsible adviser.
When records change, update confirmations and basis notes as well as counts.
Enter actual operating dates and daily counts, then compare the average, below-five days and override.
Check ★ dates and uncertain workers first, save the ledger and use it to review payroll and labor requirements.