More companies to offer bonuses for Lunar New Year

More companies are likely to dole out bonuses to their employees for the Lunar New Year holidays this year than last year. The real economy seems to have deteriorated slightly but more companies tend to increase their bonuses to their employees and the number of holidays.

According to a survey result on the “Lunar New Year holidays and bonuses, which was conducted by the Korea Employers Federation, 76.4 percent of 372 nationwide businesses will pay bonuses for the Lunar New Year holidays. It is a 4.1 percent increase from last year’s 72.3 percent.

Large companies (78.9 percent) are more likely to pay bonuses than small and medium-size companies (75.4 percent) and manufacturing companies (79.6 percent) are more prone to give bonuses than non-manufacturing companies (68.1 percent).

The average bonus payout turns out to increase by 4.3 percent from 1.18 million won (1,110 U.S. dollars) last year to 1.23 million won (1,160 dollars) this year. The increase is larger among small and mid-size companies (5.4 percent) than large companies (1.3 percent).

This year`s Lunar New Year holidays will be extended from an average of 3.5 days last year to 4.1 days. Large companies take 4.4 days off while small and mid-size companies 4 days. A source from the federation said, “As the Lunar New Year holidays come right before Sunday, the percentage of companies that take four days off has increased significantly.” Some 46.6 percent said that the economy has worsened around the time of the Lunar New Year this year than last year, while 9.8 percent said that the economy is getting better.