In Korea, working at one job for a certain period and then leaving earns you a 'severance pay' lump sum. What's the minimum service condition, in principle?

Severance pay in Korea is generally owed to workers who complete one year or more of continuous service, provided they meet baseline conditions such as averaging at least fifteen hours of work per week, and it's calculated roughly as thirty days' average wage for each year of service. This gives workers a meaningful lump-sum payout tied to how long they stayed, rewarding longer tenure rather than treating every job the same regardless of duration.

A single day of work does not qualify, since the one-year continuous-service threshold is a hard requirement, and requiring five-plus years vastly overstates the actual minimum, which sits at just one year rather than five.

Foreign workers who meet the same service and hours conditions are entitled to severance pay exactly like Korean nationals, which is an important protection worth confirming before leaving a job, since some employers mistakenly assume the rule doesn't apply to foreign staff.