What Is Korea's Weekly Paid Rest Day (Juhyu Sudang)?
Under South Korea's Labor Standards Act, an employee whose contracted weekly hours are 15 or more, and who attends every scheduled workday that week without absence, earns one additional paid day off — paid as if it were a full day worked. This is called "juhyu sudang," literally "weekly rest allowance." The United States has no federal equivalent. The FLSA sets rules for minimum wage and overtime, but it does not require any employer to guarantee a paid rest day based on weekly hours — full-time, part-time, and hourly workers alike get no such federal entitlement.
This calculator lets English-speaking readers explore how the Korean rule works: enter contracted weekly hours and an hourly wage, and it checks whether the 15-hour threshold is met, then estimates what the weekly rest pay would be under Korean law. The pay is calculated by converting your weekly hours into a "daily equivalent" (capped at 8 hours, scaled against a 40-hour week) and multiplying by the hourly wage.
This tool is meant as an explainer for anyone curious about how Korean employment law treats part-time and hourly work differently from the U.S. — for example, students researching Korea's labor system, expats preparing to work there, or HR teams comparing international policies. It is not a U.S. payroll or legal calculator, and the dollar figures shown are illustrative only, not a real U.S. entitlement.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. U.S. federal labor law (the FLSA) does not require a paid weekly rest day for any employee, regardless of hours worked. This is a Korea-specific legal requirement with no direct federal counterpart in the U.S.
It applies when a worker's contracted weekly hours are 15 or more and they attend every scheduled workday that week without absence. This calculator checks only the hours condition — full attendance must be verified separately.