Working Holiday in Korea: What Jobs You Can Take and How to Find Them

What the H-1 actually allows

The H-1 working holiday visa lets you stay for the period of the bilateral arrangement and work to fund the stay, without a sponsoring employer. Work is permitted broadly, but it is not permission to do everything:

• Employer-tied and licensed roles need their own status. Language instruction is generally the domain of the E-2 teaching visa, which has separate nationality and degree requirements. Doing such work on an H-1 without the correct permission is a breach of status.
• H-1 is not a route to long-term employment. It is a once-in-a-lifetime working-holiday status, not extendable in the way work visas are, and it does not convert automatically into an E-series visa.

The H-1 structure, quotas and age limits are covered in our H-1 working holiday visa guide. If you plan to stay on in professional work, the switch to an employer-sponsored status is handled through the Korea work visa process.

What the minimum wage means for you

Korea’s minimum wage applies to every worker regardless of nationality or visa type. For 2026 the statutory minimum is 10,320 KRW per hour — about 2,156,880 KRW per month at the standard 209-hour calculation — and the figure is revised annually. A job offer below the minimum is not legal, whatever your status.

The labour protections that apply to Korean workers — written employment contract, wage payment rules, working-time limits and paid leave — apply to you as well. Practical things to keep:

• A written employment contract stating the job, hours and pay.
• Records of hours worked and pay received (payslips, bank deposits).
• If pay is short or not paid, the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s contact centre (dial 1350) provides multilingual assistance.

Where to find jobs

Working holiday holders find work through several channels:

• WorkNet (Weollo Neoteu, 워크넷) — the official public employment service run by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. It lists registered openings and supports foreign-language users.
• General job boards and part-time apps — Korean job sites and part-time apps carry hospitality, retail, office, event and farm positions that working holiday holders commonly take.
• University and language-school job boards, and word of mouth in expat communities, for short-term and casual work.

Before accepting anything, confirm the job does not fall into a category that requires a different visa, and that the employer intends to pay the statutory minimum.

Restrictions and common mistakes

• Don’t take teaching work assuming it is allowed. If a role is really a language-instruction role, it is assessed under the E-2 rules. Confirm before accepting.
• Don’t treat H-1 as a path to staying long term. If you want to keep working in Korea, start the change of status assessment before your permission expires — the employer-driven process is described in our Korea work visa guide.
• Keep your address registration current. As with other long-term statuses, changes of address must be reported within the required window.

Note — working holiday terms, the minimum wage and permitted activities are set by the bilateral arrangement and Korean law and are revised periodically. This article is general information as of August 2026 and does not confirm eligibility in any individual case. Confirm the terms for your nationality with the Korean embassy or consulate, and the current wage with the Ministry of Employment and Labor, before relying on it.