The government will provide financial support to companies to help the shortened maximum weekly statutory hours quickly take root.

The Employment and Labor Ministry said Tuesday it will come up with measures with related agencies to help make up for corporate costs for additional hiring and employees' wage reductions for the swift settlement of the revised legislation on shorter work hours.

The ministry will also seek plans so that reduced work hours can generate effects such as job sharing and youth employment.

For this aim, the ministry is considering sharply expanding its current project on the sharing of jobs.

This project calls for providing as much as 800-thousand won monthly for the duration of one year for every newly hired worker and 400-thousand won for an existing employee. A budget of over 21 billion won has been allotted to this project for 2018. 

The recent revision has reduced weekly work hours from 68 to 52.