Only Mega Districts Exempt from 52-Hour Week? Opposition Cites Regional Discrimination

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an "AI-based personalized news recommendation and summary service" developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news items by reader type.

1. Only Mega Districts Exempt from 52-Hour Week? People Power Party Says "Half-Baked Reform, Regional Discrimination"

Key Summary: The government and ruling party are reviewing the introduction of a "white-collar exemption," centered on abolishing the 52-hour weekly work cap and excluding the application of overtime, night, and holiday pay regulations, limited to managers and R&D personnel in the top 3% income bracket within semiconductor mega districts. The People Power Party, saying that "equity with advanced-industry workers outside the districts is being undermined," has led the introduction of an amendment to the Semiconductor Special Act to expand it to semiconductor R&D workers overall. The bill contains a method of granting working-hour exemptions through written agreement between the parties, on the condition of payment of additional working wages and measures to protect health rights. The white-collar exemption was first included in the Semiconductor Special Act proposed by the People Power Party as its party line in 2024, but the provision was dropped from the bill passed in January this year due to opposition from the Democratic Party. New employees about to enter or currently working in semiconductor, IT, and R&D roles need to continuously watch related developments, as their actual working conditions could change depending on how the legislative discussions progress.

2. "Tao's Law" Born on a Camp Bed…Backed by China's 210 Trillion Won in Subsidies

Key Summary: Huawei reinvested 21.8% of its 126 billion dollars (about 182 trillion won) in revenue last year into R&D, roughly twice the level of Samsung Electronics (11%). Analysts say that the customer-first, struggle, and profit-sharing philosophy contained in the "Huawei Basic Law" enacted in 1998, along with the extreme work culture symbolized by the issuing of camp beds, served as the foundation for technological innovations such as "Tao's Law." Since 2014, the Chinese government has poured a total of 142 billion dollars (about 210 trillion won) into its domestic semiconductor industry, 3.6 times the 39 billion dollars (about 57 trillion won) in support under the U.S. CHIPS Act. The business community is strongly raising the need to transition to a performance-tailored reward system, saying, "It is irrational to apply the same labor system to an employee receiving 600 million won in performance pay and an employee with a 60 million won annual salary."

3. Apple Pursues Chinese Purchases Amid Memory Supply Shortage

Key Summary: In the aftermath of surging memory chip prices, Apple's stock plunged 7.35%, ceding the top global market cap spot to Nvidia, and its fourth-quarter revenue growth rate is also expected to stay at 9–11%, lower than the third quarter's (16–17%). To increase its supply sources, concentrated among three firms—Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron—to five, Apple pursued supply negotiations with ChangXin Memory and Yangtze Memory Technologies, which are on the U.S. Department of Defense blacklist. Micron pushed back, saying that "the price pressure from customers that drove memory prices down to a third of their level in 2023 weakened investment capacity in the AI era," and U.S. senators from both parties sent a letter demanding a pledge not to use Chinese-made products by August 21. New employees interested in supply chain roles would do well to treat as an important variable in grasping industry trends the fact that domestic semiconductor firms' order structures could change depending on the direction of decisions by U.S. politicians.

4. Discussions on Regulating Overimmersion in AI Character Chat Begin in Earnest

Key Summary: The average monthly usage per person for AI character chat services such as "Zeta," "Melting," and "Crack" reaches 40 hours, 29 hours, and 26 hours respectively, and Zeta's total usage time in the first half of this year recorded 300 million hours. The National Assembly Research Service released a report stating that AI chatbots can bring about risks such as cognitive distortion, social isolation, and personal information leaks, urging strengthened operator responsibility, and Democratic Party lawmaker Cho In-chul introduced a bill granting guardians of minors the authority to limit usage time and view conversation content. The Ministry of Science and ICT is expected to move toward establishing standards and guidelines on AI service design elements that induce addiction and overimmersion. Those working in the AI and platform industries should now review, as a practical variable, the possibility that overimmersion prevention features will be added as a legal obligation at the service planning and design stage.

5. Beyond Sales to Installation and Subscription…Accelerating Service Business Growth

Key Summary: Home appliance, furniture, and platform companies such as Kyowon Wells, Bodyfriend, Fursys, and Ohou are successively expanding their post-sales installation, subscription, and maintenance businesses. Kyowon Wells' bathroom home care service "Wells Coating365" saw sales surge 355% within two months of launch, and Bodyfriend's home-visit management service "The Care" saw usage records in the first half of this year skyrocket 707% compared with the same period last year. Professor Lee Eun-hee of Inha University analyzed, "Unlike product sales, services have a structure that generates regular revenue," and "By maintaining contact points with consumers, companies can raise customer loyalty and build a long-term profit structure." New employees in sales, marketing, and planning roles need to pay attention to the trend that the shift in business models from product-centered to service- and subscription-centered is itself changing performance metrics.

6. Brokerages Raise Deposit Usage Fees on Base Rate Hike

Key Summary: Amid the Bank of Korea's base rate hike last month, Mirae Asset Securities will raise its usage fee rate on deposits of 1 million won or less from 2.0% to 2.25% per year—a 0.25 percentage point increase—starting September 1, and KB Securities will also raise its rate from 0.85% to 1.00% per year over the same period. NH Investment & Securities and Korea Investment & Securities are also reviewing whether to raise rates during the third quarter, with a high likelihood the move will spread across brokerages. The deposit usage fee is interest-like money that a brokerage pays on standby funds an investor has deposited in an account for stock trading; it is structured so that the brokerage pays it to the investor after deducting costs from the returns earned by depositing the funds with the Korea Securities Finance Corporation. New professionals managing assets through brokerage accounts would find it a good time to check changes in each brokerage's usage fee rates by deposit balance tier to review the efficiency of managing their standby funds.