Hagwon sick leave and unpaid absence: what the Labor Standards Act actually requires

You wake up with a fever, text your director, and wonder what happens to your pay. Here is the part most teachers never get told straight: Korea's Labor Standards Act does not require any employer, hagwon or otherwise, to give you paid sick leave for an ordinary illness. The LSA does not mandate paid sick leave unless specified in the employment contract or company policy, though employers must provide unpaid leave or consider industrial accident leave if the illness or injury is work-related.

That surprises a lot of people, because Korea does mandate something that feels similar: annual leave.

Annual leave is the real entitlement

Paid annual leave is 15 days after one year with 80% attendance, plus 1 day for every 2 further years, up to 25 days, and in the first year, 1 day per month of full attendance (up to 11 days). This is the leave most teachers actually use for sick days, because the law gives you no separate paid sick bucket to draw from.

That first-year detail matters for a new hire. If you are three months into your first contract, you have earned roughly three paid days off, not fifteen. Spend one on a stomach bug in January and you have two left for the rest of the year unless your contract gives you more.

Work-related illness is different

If you got hurt or genuinely sick because of the job itself, not a cold you caught on the subway, that falls under Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance instead of ordinary sick leave rules, and work-related injuries trigger paid leave at 70% of average wages, covered by the employer and Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance. This is a narrow category and the hospital or Workers' Compensation office makes the call, not your director.

What a school can and cannot deduct

Beyond your paid annual leave balance, Korea runs on a no-work-no-pay principle. A school can lawfully deduct an unpaid day that isn't covered by leave you've earned. What varies, and this is the part worth checking before you ever need it, is whether your specific hagwon contract adds paid sick days on top of the legal minimum. Some do. Some just point you to annual leave and leave it there. The Act sets the floor, not the ceiling, so read your contract's leave clause now, not from a hospital bed.

Documenting an absence, step by step

1. Message your director the same morning, before your first class if possible.
2. Get a doctor's note (진단서 or 소견서) if you're out more than a day. Clinics issue these same-day for a small fee.
3. Ask whether the day is being charged against annual leave or taken unpaid. Get the answer in writing, even a KakaoTalk message.
4. Keep a running count of your own annual leave balance. Payroll makes mistakes, usually honest ones, and you want your own paper trail.
5. For anything tied to a workplace injury, say so explicitly and ask about Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance rather than assuming it's ordinary sick leave.

So the honest answer to "is my sick day paid" is: check the leave balance you've already earned, then check your contract. The law gives you a floor. Your contract decides how far above it you stand.