No Written Employment Contract? It's a Fine for Regular Employees, a Fixed Penalty for Fixed-Term Workers
"We're short-staffed, just start now and we'll sort the contract out later" is a line plenty of new hires hear — and months later, there's still no signed paper anywhere. Not having a written contract doesn't erase the work that was done, but the company is on the hook for a clear penalty. What's less known is that the penalty splits into two very different tracks depending on whether the worker is a regular employee or not — a criminal fine on one side, an administrative fixed penalty on the other.
Labor Standards Act Article 17 — wages, hours, and holidays have to be in writing
Article 17 of the Labor Standards Act requires an employer to clearly state, when forming an employment contract, the components and calculation method of wages, prescribed working hours, holidays, and paid annual leave. Among these, wages, prescribed working hours, holidays, and annual leave must be delivered in writing (including electronic documents) — that part of the obligation isn't optional. A verbal rundown doesn't satisfy it. And it's not just for new contracts: if any of these terms change later, the employer has to reissue them in writing whenever the worker asks.
Regular employees get a fine, fixed-term and part-time workers get a fixed penalty — the two are legally different
For a regular employee (no fixed end date to the contract), violating this duty triggers a fine of up to 5 million won under Article 114 of the Labor Standards Act — a criminal penalty. In practice, a labor inspector usually issues a corrective order first (typically within 14 days), and it only escalates to a criminal case if the company ignores the order or intent is found. For fixed-term and part-time workers, though, a separate law — the Act on the Protection of Fixed-Term and Part-Time Workers — applies, and a fixed penalty of up to 5 million won can be imposed immediately, with no corrective-order step first. In practice, part-timers and contract workers can end up facing penalty proceedings faster and more directly than regular employees do.
How much, exactly — it multiplies by the number of workers
That 5 million won cap on the fixed penalty is a ceiling per violation, not a single flat amount for the whole workplace. Interpretive cases published by Korea's National Law Information Center show a first-offense benchmark of 2.4 million won per violation for failing to put working conditions in writing, and when the same failure repeats across multiple workers, it's multiplied by headcount. In one documented case, a business that failed to issue contracts to all five of its part-time workers was assessed a total of 12 million won across five separate violations. Contrary to the assumption that "we're small, it'll be fine," the more people involved, the larger the total gets.
Even a one-person business isn't exempt
The written-notice duty under Article 17 applies regardless of workplace size. Many people assume a business with fewer than five regular employees is exempt from parts of the Labor Standards Act, but Article 17 isn't one of the exceptions. Even a shop with a single employee is subject to the same penalty if it fails to draw up and issue a contract. The more a working condition is conditional or subject to change — like the 90% minimum wage reduction during probation — the more that condition needs to be on paper, or it becomes a bigger source of dispute later.
No contract doesn't mean no employment relationship
Not having a signed contract doesn't make the employment relationship itself void. If someone showed up, worked under instruction, and was paid for it, an employment relationship exists even without paperwork. The real problem is proof. If the promised hourly rate, working hours, or whether weekly holiday pay was included become a matter of dispute, the worker without anything in writing ends up at a disadvantage. In that situation, the practical defense is to start collecting pay stubs, time records, and any texts or messages containing work instructions as early as possible.
You can ask for the standard contract template first
If a company claims it hasn't issued a contract because there's "no template" or it's "too much hassle," that excuse doesn't hold up. Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor distributes free standard employment contract templates by worker type — regular, fixed-term, part-time, and minors — on its website. If a worker proactively says "let's use this template," the company only has to fill in blanks rather than draft something from scratch, which in practice often gets the contract actually signed. And the fact that the template was requested becomes its own record — evidence, if needed later, that written notice was formally asked for.
Reporting it doesn't put money in your pocket — here's why to do it anyway
Fixed penalties and fines go to the national treasury; they are not paid out to the worker who reported the violation. That's why a lot of people decide "there's nothing in it for me" and let it go. But filing a complaint through the Ministry of Employment and Labor's online labor portal or calling 1350 can trigger an investigation that covers unpaid wages or allowances alongside the missing-contract issue. Workplaces that skip putting terms in writing often have other labor violations sitting alongside it, and when a situation escalates into something like workplace harassment, the absence of a written contract makes the investigation that much harder. Calling 1350 before filing, to ask what a labor inspector will check and what records to bring, makes the whole process go far more smoothly.
Checklist — if you don't have a contract right now
First, formally request written notice from the company. Keeping a record of that request — by text or email — becomes evidence later. Second, if the company keeps stalling, start gathering pay stubs, time records, and any messages containing work instructions from now on. Third, if a dispute over contract terms has already come up, consider filing a complaint through the Ministry of Employment and Labor's online labor portal or 1350. Checking which regional labor office has jurisdiction over the workplace beforehand makes it easier to get guided through the process. Fourth, when filing, it's worth checking whether wage or allowance issues exist alongside the missing-contract problem, so everything can be resolved in one pass.
This article is general guidance based on Articles 17 and 114 of the Labor Standards Act and the Act on the Protection of Fixed-Term and Part-Time Workers as in effect in August 2026. Whether a specific workplace is in violation, and the exact fine or penalty amount, requires confirmation from the local labor office's inspector or a certified labor attorney.
All content is fact-checked under our editorial standards.