South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor has recently revealed the 2020 work-life balance index for the nation’s 17 metropolitan cities and provinces based on the results of a recent survey. In it, Seoul has come out on top as the best metropolitan city in the nation for work-life balance. South Korea’s overall work-life balance index averaged 53.4 points last year, up 2.9 points from a year ago (50.5 points).
Going by region, the capital city came in first place with 62 points, which was then closely followed by Busan with 61.2 points. Several other top cities for work-life balance included Jeju with 57.6, South Jeolla Province with 57.4 and Sejong with 55.9 points.
On the other hand, the bottom five cities has scores which were under the national average. These included Gangwon with 47 points, North Gyeongsang Province with 47.9, North Jeolla Province with 48, Gwangju with 48.5 and Incheon with 49.7.
On the ‘work’ side of things, South Korea saw a rather significant drop in the number of monthly working hours, which went from 182.8 to 163.4. In addition to this, it was noted that overtime working hours also saw a decline from 12.2 to 10.0. This can be partially attributed to the government’s 52-hour workweek policy and the increased adoption of flexible working hours and working from home, all of which were efforts to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.
When looking at the ‘life’ side of things, the share of those who said housework should be shared equally between men and women increased from 58.7 percent to 62.1 percent.
