In South Korea, the legal workweek is limited to 52 hours. But if you’re Samsung and you’re being overtaken in the semiconductor race, the government can make an exception. And it did.
In South Korea, the legal workweek is limited to 52 hours. But if you’re Samsung and you’re being overtaken in the semiconductor race, the government can make an exception. And it did.
Samsung officially received permission to extend the workweek for its R&D teams to 64 hours on April 9. It is the first company in the region to receive such a boost. The reason is the need to speed up chip development and catch up with TSMC, which is still ahead.
According to The Chosun Daily, the decision was approved by the Ministry of Labor (Gyeonggi Province branch). It was made possible by changes to South Korea’s labor laws passed on March 14. Companies can now apply to extend the limit by 6 months (previously, only 3 months).
It is not clear whether R&D workers will receive more overtime pay. But it seems to be becoming the new norm in the race for nanometers.
Samsung recently achieved a 40% yield rate for 2nm chips, up from 30% at the previous stage, and has also assembled a team for the 1nm process, aiming for mass production in 2029.
