I'm leaving a job after working over a year — do foreigners get severance pay?
I've worked as a full-time employee at a Korean company for about a year and two months, and I'm resigning next month. I'm not sure whether foreign workers are entitled to severance pay (퇴직금) or how the amount is calculated. If the company refuses to pay, where can I turn for help?
1 Answer
Yes. Severance pay (퇴직금) applies to foreign employees on exactly the same terms as to Korean ones — nationality is not a condition anywhere in the rule.
You qualify if you worked at one workplace for at least one continuous year and averaged 15 or more hours a week, so a year and two months clears it comfortably. Resigning voluntarily does not forfeit it; severance is not a redundancy payment.
The amount. The formula is your average wage over the last three months, multiplied by 30 days, multiplied by your days of service divided by 365. In practice that is roughly one month''s pay for each year worked. Average wage means total wages actually paid in those three months, including allowances and bonuses that form part of your regular pay, divided by the number of days — not your base salary alone, which is why the figure is usually higher than people expect. The Ministry of Employment and Labor publishes a severance calculator you can run before you leave, and it is worth doing so you know the number you are owed before payday rather than after.
The deadline. Under Article 36 of the Labor Standards Act the employer must settle all money owed — severance, unpaid wages, unused leave — within 14 days of the last day of employment. That period can be extended only by agreement between the parties. If your company uses a retirement pension scheme (퇴직연금, DC or DB), the money sits in that account and is paid out from there.
If they refuse or stall. File a complaint with the Ministry of Employment and Labor. The customer counselling centre on 1350 has foreign-language support and will direct you to the regional labour office that handles your workplace, and the investigation costs nothing. The limitation period for a wage claim is three years, so there is time, but sooner is easier. Keep your employment contract, payslips and bank records — those three documents decide most cases.
Sources: 근로기준법 제36조, 고용노동부.
Last verified: 2026-09-28