NPR

South Korea Shortens 'Inhumanely Long' Workweek

"It is impossible to lead a happy life when long hours and overexertion become routine," President Moon Jae-in said recently. The country has one of the world's lowest birth rates.
South Korea's parliament has shortened the maximum workweek amid the country's low birth and productivity rates. Workers are seen here at a factory in Ansan, South Korea, in 2015.

Employees in South Korea work long hours: 2,069 hours per worker annually – the second-highest among the Economic Cooperation and Development states, after Mexico. In the United States, that figure is 1,783.

Those long hours went hand-in-hand with the country's in the 1980s and '90s. But for all those hours worked, South Korea's , and so is — the country .

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