SKorea wants people working less, having kids

SEOUL, South Korea — When South Koreans go back to work after the weekend, they will become part of a grand social experiment.

Its proposition is simple enough. The government wants to reduce the official corporate work week, hand employees some more free time and encourage side effects such as better health, less stress and perhaps a chance to nudge up one of the world's lowest birthrates.

Who could quibble with that?

Well, office workers for one. They think that lowering the workweek to 52 hours — from the current 68 hours — will mean they will be stuck working the same grueling hours no matter what it says when the change begins Sunday.

Companies, too, have reservations. They wonder if they will have to hire more staff members or kick in overtime to keep pace in East Asia's hyper-competitive and generally workaholic market.

There is so much uncertainty and ambivalence that South Korea's government agreed last week to allow a six-month "soft landing" to phase in the new rules, which mandate the workweek rollback for companies with at least 300 employees.

The slow-roll approach was a significant concession by President Moon Jae-in. His efforts to adjust South Korea's work-life balance is as much a signature issue as his outreach to North Korea. Moon's government has already hiked the hourly minimum wage about 16 percent to nearly $7, the biggest jump in about two decades. It also has started programs to help ease costs for small businesses and shopkeepers.

Still, changing pay scales is a lot easier than changing a work culture bred in the bone for many South Koreans during its 60-year rise from post-war poverty to leading industrial power.

Big companies in South Korea often put a premium on dedication. If the boss is working, don't think about calling it a day.

To comply with the government's push for shorter office hours, some companies have literally pulled the plug. They have shut down computer networks to force people to go home.

Officials have given notso-subtle hints about what couples should do with a bit more time on their hands.

Chung Hyun-back, the gender equality and family minister, called the country's working hours "inhumanely long" in March and blamed work burnout as one of the reasons for a drop in pregnancies. South Korea's fertility rate of 1.2 children per woman, according to OECD statistics, is among the lowest in the world along with Italy and Spain.