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Effects of a national work hours restriction in a high hours country

Jieun Lee
Jieun Lee
   | Sep 13, 2022
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Published Online: Sep 13, 2022
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Accepted: Jul 07, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajolp-2022-0006
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© 2022 Jieun Lee, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Distribution of hours worked before the policy change.Notes: (A) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who worked more than 34 h in the reference week, in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (B) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who usually worked more than 34 h/week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction.
Distribution of hours worked before the policy change.Notes: (A) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who worked more than 34 h in the reference week, in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (B) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who usually worked more than 34 h/week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction.

Figure 2

Trends in actual hours worked.Notes: The new work hour restriction was passed on February 28, 2018 and first implemented on July 1, 2018. (A) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who worked more than 34 h in the reference week in industries where the new restriction was enforced in all subsectors in July 2018. (B) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who worked more than 34 h in the reference week in industries either where the new work hour restriction was enforced in July 2019 or where it was enforced in some subsectors in July 2018 and in the other subsectors in July 2019. (C) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who worked more than 34 h in the reference week in industries where the new restriction was enforced in some subsectors in July 2019 but it would not be compulsory in the other subsectors due to the legal position of special case.
Trends in actual hours worked.Notes: The new work hour restriction was passed on February 28, 2018 and first implemented on July 1, 2018. (A) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who worked more than 34 h in the reference week in industries where the new restriction was enforced in all subsectors in July 2018. (B) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who worked more than 34 h in the reference week in industries either where the new work hour restriction was enforced in July 2019 or where it was enforced in some subsectors in July 2018 and in the other subsectors in July 2019. (C) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who worked more than 34 h in the reference week in industries where the new restriction was enforced in some subsectors in July 2019 but it would not be compulsory in the other subsectors due to the legal position of special case.

Figure 3

Individual-level event-study estimates.Notes: The new work hour restriction was passed on February 28, 2018 and was first implemented on July 1, 2018. (A) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who worked more than 34 h in the reference week, in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (B) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who usually worked more than 34 h/week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (C) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who usually worked more than 34 h/week as salaried or hourly employees in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (D) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who usually worked more than 34 h/week as salaried or hourly employees in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction.
Individual-level event-study estimates.Notes: The new work hour restriction was passed on February 28, 2018 and was first implemented on July 1, 2018. (A) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who worked more than 34 h in the reference week, in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (B) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who usually worked more than 34 h/week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (C) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who usually worked more than 34 h/week as salaried or hourly employees in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (D) Male workers between the ages of 25 and 55, who usually worked more than 34 h/week as salaried or hourly employees in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction.

Figure 4

Group-level event-study estimates.Notes: The new work hour restriction was passed on February 28, 2018 and was first implemented on July 1, 2018. (A) Total work hours are the sum of actual hours worked of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who worked at least an hour in the reference week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (B) Total work hours are the sum of actual hours worked of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who worked more than 34 h in the reference week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (C) Total employment is the number of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who worked at least an hour in the reference week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (D) Total employment is the number of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who worked more than 34 h in the reference week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (E) Total worker pay is the sum of monthly earnings of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who usually worked at least an hour per week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (F) Total worker pay is the sum of monthly earnings of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who usually worked more than 34 h/week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction.
Group-level event-study estimates.Notes: The new work hour restriction was passed on February 28, 2018 and was first implemented on July 1, 2018. (A) Total work hours are the sum of actual hours worked of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who worked at least an hour in the reference week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (B) Total work hours are the sum of actual hours worked of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who worked more than 34 h in the reference week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (C) Total employment is the number of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who worked at least an hour in the reference week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (D) Total employment is the number of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who worked more than 34 h in the reference week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (E) Total worker pay is the sum of monthly earnings of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who usually worked at least an hour per week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction. (F) Total worker pay is the sum of monthly earnings of all male workers between the ages of 25 and 55 who usually worked more than 34 h/week in all industries and establishment sizes subject to the new restriction.

Individual-level estimation results

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
Actual hours Usual hours Log monthly earnings Log hourly wages Usual hours Log monthly earnings Log hourly wages
Treatment effect −4.242*** (1.233) −4.334*** (0.987) 0.068 (0.054) 0.142** (0.061) −4.566*** (0.973) 0.085* (0.050) 0.169*** (0.054)
Basic controls X X X X X X X
Additional controls X X X
Observations 288,521 33,802 33,802 33,802 33,024 33,024 33,024
R-squared 0.115 0.147 0.495 0.500 0.160 0.525 0.541

Pre-trend tests for individual-level outcomes

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
Actual hours Usual hours Log monthly earnings Log hourly wages Usual hours Log monthly earnings Log hourly wages
Treatment effect −1.092 (0.985) −0.588 (1.742) 0.038 (0.484) 0.044 (0.061) −0.513 (1.726) 0.038 (0.470) 0.045 (0.596)
Basic controls X X X X X X X
Additional controls X X X
Observations 146,583 20,699 20,699 20,699 20,699 20,699 20,699
R-squared 0.105 0.159 0.506 0.512 0.174 0.542 0.557

Summary statistics for policy intensity

Min 1st Quartile 2nd Quartile 3rd Quartile Max Mean SD
0.009 0.135 0.192 0.241 0.862 0.200 0.099
Proportion of workers working >52 h 19.63%
Observations 174,870

Pre-trend tests for group-level outcomes

A. All workers
(1) (2) (3) (4)
Log total work hours Log total employment Log total worker pay Log total worker pay
Treatment effect 0.006 (0.100) 0.054 (0.099) −0.026 0.275 0.064 (0.231)
Basic controls X X X X
Additional controls X
R-squared 0.183 0.081 0.306 0.448

Group-level estimation results

A. All Workers
(1) (2) (3) (4)
Log total work hours Log total employment Log total worker pay Log total worker pay
Treatment effect −0.143 (0.107) −0.083 (0.110) −0.135 (0.261) −0.137 (0.249)
Basic controls X X X X
Additional controls X
R-squared 0.187 0.077 0.267 0.320

Summary statistics

Before After
Mean SD Mean SD
A. Outcome variables for full-time workers
Actual hours worked 46.971 8.134 45.188 7.056
Usual hours worked* 43.450 6.401 43.246 5.857
Monthly earnings (10,000 Won)* 329.171 153.306 353.503 169.142
Hourly wages (10,000 Won)* 1.783 0.906 1.909 0.981
B. Outcome variables for workers working >52 h/week
Actual hours worked 60.345 6.612 59.814 6.284
Usual hours worked* 59.894 5.627 59.436 5.453
Monthly earnings (10,000 Won)* 272.004 111.977 307.123 128.292
Hourly wages (10,000 Won)* 1.050 0.446 1.186 0.499
C. Demographic characteristics
Age 40.050 8.358 40.149 8.393
Marital status
  Single 0.283 0.450 0.313 0.464
  Married 0.683 0.465 0.655 0.476
  Widowed 0.004 0.062 0.004 0.059
  Divorced 0.030 0.171 0.029 0.167
D. Job characteristics
Fixed-term contract 0.100 0.300 0.107 0.310
Status in employment
  Regular workers 0.844 0.363 0.859 0.348
  Temporary workers 0.089 0.284 0.079 0.269
  Daily hired workers 0.038 0.194 0.034 0.180
  Self-employed with employees 0.029 0.169 0.028 0.166
  Self-employed without employees 0.000 0.004 0.000 0.002
  Unpaid family workers 0.000 0.015 0.000 0.020
Establishment size
  5–9 employees 0.187 0.390 0.183 0.386
  10–29 employees 0.246 0.430 0.249 0.433
  30–99 employees 0.221 0.415 0.216 0.411
  100–299 employees 0.137 0.343 0.137 0.344
  300+ employees 0.211 0.408 0.215 0.411
E. Additional job characteristics*
Special type of employment 0.012 0.107 0.010 0.097
Flexible work hours 0.064 0.245 0.152 0.359
Employer-sponsored pension 0.897 0.304 0.913 0.282
Employer-sponsored health care 0.900 0.300 0.914 0.280
Employment insurance 0.794 0.404 0.842 0.365
Severance pay 0.890 0.313 0.906 0.292
Bonus 0.873 0.332 0.859 0.348
Overtime pay 0.670 0.470 0.669 0.471
Paid vacation 0.810 0.393 0.827 0.378
Training 0.681 0.466 0.675 0.468
Salary form
  Monthly 0.593 0.491 0.580 0.494
  Annually 0.303 0.459 0.320 0.467
  Others 0.104 0.305 0.100 0.300
Union
  No union 0.656 0.475 0.660 0.474
  Not eligible for union 0.076 0.265 0.077 0.266
  Eligible but did not join union 0.078 0.268 0.082 0.275
Union member 0.190 0.392 0.181 0.385
Observations for all male full-time workers 174,870 113,651
Observations for male workers working >52 h/week 34,322 14,212
Observations for all male full-time workers* 20,699 13,103
Observations for male workers working >52 h/week* 1,914 901
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