Regular Employee Count · The 5, 30 and 50 Employee Thresholds
Calculation of the Number of Regularly Employed Workers
How is the regular employee count calculated?
- Not headcount on a given day, but a one-month average of person-days
- Each law uses its own counting method and scope
- One more hire brings a bundle of obligations
The regular employee count decides 'which laws apply to our company.' A company with fewer than 5 employees is exempt from overtime premium pay, annual leave and dismissal restrictions, but the moment it reaches 5, all of them apply. At 30 employees, setting up a labor-management council and appointing grievance handling committee members becomes mandatory, and around 50, the rules on appointing safety managers, mandatory employment of people with disabilities and the scope of statutory training change. Because each additional hire can trigger a whole bundle of obligations at once, when you plan year-end hiring, first check which bracket next year's regular employee count will fall into.
Under the Labor Standards Act, the count is calculated by dividing the total person-days worked by employees in the month before the triggering date by the number of operating days in that period. It does not count only permanent staff: fixed-term and part-time workers are included, while dispatched workers are excluded from the user company's headcount. When the number fluctuates from month to month, a correction rule applies, such as whether there were fewer than 5 workers on at least half of the days in that month. The Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Act on Employment Promotion of Persons with Disabilities, and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act each use different counting standards and reference points, so being at 49 under one law does not mean you are at 49 under another.
This number matters to training managers because the scope and method of statutory mandatory training depend on headcount bracket. Sexual harassment prevention training is required regardless of size, though small workplaces can meet the requirement under certain conditions by distributing training materials. For occupational safety and health training and disability awareness training, the obligation and the method vary by industry and number of regular employees. This is how companies end up deciding 'we are not covered' ahead of the year-end deadline for statutory training, then getting fined in the following year's inspection.
Where companies go wrong is judging by the headcount on December 31. The count is recalculated for each triggering date, so in a peak-season month with extra part-timers you may reach 5 or more and then drop below it again. Workplaces made up only of the CEO and relatives living with them are excluded, but it is also easy to miss that a family member who works alongside other employees is counted. Obligations by bracket and fine levels change with amendments to the law, so check the latest notices and guidance from the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency.
Jungmi AhnSkin and beauty research and training specialist
Miyoung OhCross-cultural and global business communication specialistThe Labor Standards Act applies to workplaces that regularly employ 5 or more workers, and its Enforcement Decree requires the count to be calculated by dividing the total person-days in the month before the triggering date by the number of operating days. Other labor laws have their own separate counting rules tailored to their scope of application.
Let's look at a hypothetical case. Company A, a food manufacturer with 46 employees, plans to hire 6 production workers in the first half of next year. At the October business planning meeting, the finance director asked, 'What changes once we pass 50?' No one could answer precisely, and the CEO told the HR manager to put together an answer within a week.
- Assistant Manager Park in HR worked with a labor attorney to build a table comparing the counting standards under the Labor Standards Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Act on Employment Promotion of Persons with Disabilities, and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. It was the first time they saw that each law counts dispatched and part-time workers differently.
- The calculation showed that if they used 9 short-term packing workers during the November–December peak season, there would be months in which the count already exceeds 50 under the Labor Standards Act, and the labor attorney explained that 'the count is redone for each triggering date.'
- After hearing the obligations that apply at 50 or more employees, the CEO chose not to delay hiring. Instead, they put the appointment of a safety manager and a disability employment plan into next year's budget, saying, 'Getting caught hiding it costs more.'
- The training team recalculated who must attend each of the four statutory trainings, bracket by bracket, and built the results into next year's training plan. They also switched occupational safety and health training to quarterly group sessions.
- Next year's first-quarter regular employee count came out at 52.3, so every obligation for the 50-and-over bracket applied. Because the company had prepared in advance, the routine labor inspection in the second half of the year found no issues.