This post covers South Korean law (Korean rules, as of the check date above).
In Korea you receive severance pay when your continuous service is at least one year and your average scheduled working hours over four weeks are at least 15 hours a week. So a real boundary exists: leave one day before your one-year anniversary and you get 0 won; leave one day after and you get about 3.42 million won (assuming a monthly salary of 3.5 million won). This post is the result of running the Calcmoa severance calculator’s function across that boundary and across years of service.
When can you receive severance pay?
Under Articles 4 and 8 of the Act on the Guarantee of Workers’ Retirement Benefits (근로자퇴직급여 보장법), an employer must pay severance of at least 30 days of average wage for each year of continuous service. A reply from the Ministry of Employment and Labor explains continuous service as the period from the signing of the employment contract until it ends, and says coverage is judged by scheduled working hours, not by hours actually worked. Under Article 9 of the same Act, payment is due within 14 days of the retirement date, and the parties can agree to extend this in special circumstances.
How much does one day of difference change things?
The calculator takes the retirement date as the day after the last working day. We assumed a start date of 1 October 2025, total wages for the three months before retirement of 10.5 million won (3.5 million won a month), and no bonus or annual leave pay, then changed only the retirement date and ran the function. The average-wage period is 92 days, so the daily average wage is 114,130 won in every case. Amounts are in Korean won.
| Last working day | Retirement date entered | Days of service | Eligible | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-30 | 364 days | No | 0 won (3,414,532 won by the formula) |
| 2026-09-30 | 2026-10-01 | 365 days | Yes | 3,423,913 won |
| 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-02 | 366 days | Yes | 3,433,293 won |
Working one more day adds only about 9,380 won to severance pay. The issue is not the amount but whether you completed one year. If your service sits near the 364 to 365 day boundary, count your exact start and end dates on a calendar and check the calculation method with your HR team or the Ministry of Employment and Labor (1350). The table above reflects this calculator’s input conventions and does not replace court decisions or company rules.
How much does severance grow with years of service?
These are results with the same conditions (3.5 million won a month, retirement on the same date as the start date) and only the length of service changed.
| Length of service | Days of service | Estimated severance pay (before tax) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 365 days | 3,423,913 won |
| 2 years | 730 days | 6,847,826 won |
| 3 years | 1,096 days | 10,281,119 won |
The third-year figure is not exactly three times the first because a leap year (29 February 2028) falls in the period, making it 1,096 days of service. The formula divides service days by 365, so a period with a leap year comes out slightly higher.
How much do bonuses change severance pay?
Three-twelfths of the previous year’s bonuses is added to the average wage. Adding an annual bonus of 6 million won adds 1.5 million won to the 10.5 million won, raising the daily average wage from 114,130 won to 130,434 won, and severance for one year of service rises from 3,423,913 won to 3,913,043 won, an increase of 489,130 won. This is why someone with a bonus gets more severance pay even at the same monthly salary. Conversely, if wages dropped during the three months before retirement, the average wage falls, so check the three-month total on your pay slips.
- The calculator takes the three-month wage total before retirement and the previous year’s bonuses and annual leave pay as separate inputs.
- If the average wage is lower than the ordinary wage, the ordinary wage is treated as the average wage, but the calculator computes only the average wage.
- Retirement income tax is not yet deducted, and with a defined contribution (DC) retirement pension the amount depends on investment results of the account.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get severance pay if I have not completed one year? Statutory severance requires at least one year of continuous service. However, if your company sets something different in its rules or contract, that may apply, so check your work rules.
Do part-timers get severance pay? Yes, if your 4-week average of scheduled weekly working hours is 15 or more and you worked for at least one year. Under 15 hours, you are excluded from statutory severance pay.
Can I receive both severance pay and unemployment benefit? They are separate systems, so you can receive both if you meet each one’s requirements. Calculate unemployment benefit separately with the Unemployment benefit calculator (Korean page).
To check an estimate from your own start date, retirement date and three months of pay, use the Severance pay calculator (Korean page).