The reduction in working hours will lead to overall growth in consumption. Therefore, a new impetus for .
economic development will be provided in service industries including cultural .
and tourist industries. Industries in uncompetitive sectors, however, will face unparalleled challenges and be pushed to undergo restructuring. .
Finally, national image will be improved. Among OECD nations, Korea is the only country that has not yet introduced the five-day workweek. Thus, the introduction of the five-day workweek is expected to improve national image in the international society.
Expected Negative Effects.
For the promotion of workers' welfare and more rewarding lives, today's six-day workweek should be slashed by one day. However, whether the shortened workweek should be adopted in very recent years is not as simple as it looks. The business communities have insisted that it is too early to have the five-day workweek system because of anticipated negative effects to the national economy.
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First of all, the introduction of the shortened workweek is expected to sharply increase labor costs if it does not lead to wage cuts. That is, the two-day weekend will result in a heavy financial burden to corporations by compensating working on Saturdays. Moreover, the Monday-to-Friday workweek system would increase the number of days off to around 139 to 143 days a year including ad hoc off-days such as the day of corporate foundation or congratulations and condolence days. The figure is roughly on a par with average of 141 off-days in advanced countries. However, it is much higher than .
the number of off-days in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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In addition, as the legal number of working hours falls to 40 hours a week, the hourly wage rate will increase as well as the number of overtime work hours. The Korea Employers Federation reported that the additional wage burdens owing to the reduced number of legal working hours would be close to 19 trillion won.