Overtime pay in Korean hagwons: what the law says, what contracts say, and what actually gets paid
Most hagwon contracts define your teaching hours narrowly and call everything else "preparation." Whether you get paid for the extra hours depends on what the contract says about office time, not on labour law.
Park English · 2026-08-24 · 4 min read
You will work more hours than your contract states. That is true at every hagwon I have placed a teacher into since 2006. The question is whether those extra hours are paid, unpaid but expected, or genuinely optional.
Korean labour law requires overtime pay at 1.5× your hourly rate for anything beyond 40 hours per week. That sounds clear until you try to apply it to a hagwon contract. Most contracts specify 30 teaching hours, then list desk work, lesson planning, and staff meetings as separate duties. The school's position is usually that those non-teaching hours are part of your base salary, not overtime.
What the contract actually defines
A standard hagwon contract breaks your time into categories:
| Category | Typical hours per week | Usually paid? |
|---|---|---|
| Teaching hours | 25–30 | Yes, as base salary |
| Office/desk hours | 5–10 | Sometimes specified, often not |
| Meetings | 1–2 | Rarely mentioned |
| Events (camps, festivals) | Variable | Depends entirely on contract |
The teaching hours are always spelled out. It is the second and third lines where people lose money or time.
If your contract says "30 teaching hours per week" and nothing else about your schedule, the school will expect you there for 40 hours minimum and argue that your salary already covers it. If the contract says "30 teaching hours plus 10 office hours," you have a stronger position to refuse unpaid evening events. But even then, "office hours" is loose. We have seen it mean grading, and we have seen it mean sitting at a desk because the director wants bodies in the building.
What actually gets paid
In practice, hagwons handle extra hours three ways:
- Rolled into salary. You are paid a flat 2.3 or 2.4 million won per month regardless of whether you teach 28 hours one week and 35 the next. This is the majority of contracts.
- Paid per additional class. If you cover for a sick teacher or pick up a Saturday makeup class, the contract states a per-hour rate — usually 20,000–30,000 won. This only applies if the extra work is explicitly a teaching hour, not if you stay late to finish report cards.
- Comp time. Some schools let you leave early another day if you worked a weekend event. This is entirely at the director's discretion and almost never written down.
What does not happen, except at the largest corporate chains, is time-and-a-half under labour law. The hagwon's position is that you are salaried, not hourly, and that the 40-hour labour standard is met by your contract's total obligations even if it does not say so line by line.
The clauses people miss
Two contract lines matter more than teachers expect:
"Teaching schedule subject to change." This appears in nearly every contract. It means the director can move your hours around within the week. It also gets used to justify adding an evening class if enrolment spikes. You can push back, but the contract gives them room.
"Participation in school events required." Vague on purpose. It has meant a Saturday science fair, a weeklong summer camp billed as "curriculum development," and a Sunday trip to an amusement park with students. If the contract does not define "event" or cap the frequency, you have no written limit.
What you can do before signing
Ask how many hours you are expected to be at the school each week, total. Not teaching — present. If they say 40 and your contract lists 30 teaching hours, ask what fills the other ten. The answer tells you whether your salary includes prep time or whether prep happens after your paid hours end.
Ask whether weekend events are paid, comp'd, or obligatory but unpaid. The director will probably say "we don't have many events," which is not an answer. Push for the policy.
If the contract includes a per-class rate for extra teaching, confirm whether that applies to all additional classes or only to certain types. Some contracts pay extra for group classes but not for one-on-one makeups, which can be two or three hours a week during exam season.
What you can do mid-contract
If you are working substantially more than the contract specifies, document it. Write down your actual hours for a month. Then raise it with the director, in writing if possible. We have seen this go two ways: the director either agrees to pay for the overage going forward, or explains that the extra work is part of your base role and always was. If it is the latter and the gap is large, you have a labour office complaint, but pursuing it usually means leaving the job.
The cleaner move is to use the documented hours as leverage in your contract renewal negotiation or to decide not to renew at all.
Most overtime disputes in hagwons are not about the law. They are about what the contract failed to spell out and what the teacher failed to ask.