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Work Glove Certifications Explained: EN388, ANSI, CE, REACH, and Korea’s KC Marks

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When you choose work gloves, the thing that actually matters is the certification printed on the label, not the price or the brand. This post is a map of those acronyms.

TL;DR

Work glove certifications fall into four groups: European performance standards (EN388, EN407, EN511, EN ISO 374), US performance standards (ANSI), market and chemical regulations (CE, REACH, FDA), and Korean certifications (KC, KCs).

The order is simple. Decide your hazard first (cut, heat, cold, chemical, electrical). Read the rating for that hazard. Then confirm legality and harmful substances with CE, REACH, and KC.

Hands get hurt the most, but get protected last

Hands are the body part most often injured at work. In the US, an estimated 5 million work-related finger, hand, and wrist injuries were treated in emergency departments from 2015 to 2022 (US NEISS, AJPM 2025).

Among 2.6 million workplace injuries in 2023, upper extremities were the most-affected body region (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Gloves help most against cuts and punctures. In a case-crossover study of 1,166 injured workers (Sorock et al., 2004), wearing gloves lowered acute hand-injury risk by about 60% (relative risk 0.4), and laceration and puncture risk fell by 60 to 70%.

Yet gloves are usually the last piece of gear people think about. Many just grab cheap cotton gloves and hope for the best. This post is about telling a real glove from a fake one, using its certifications.

It started with a single pair of gloves

This series began while shopping for one pair of work gloves. The product page for a Korean brand with an eco-friendly coating listed EN388, EN407, ANSI, FDA, REACH, CE, and SGS one after another. It looked safe, but the labels meant nothing to me.

“What do all these actually mean?” That wall of acronyms is where this guide started.

Certifications split into four worlds

Glove certifications come in four groups: European performance standards (EN), US performance standards (ANSI), market and chemical regulations (CE, REACH, FDA), and Korean certifications (KC, KCs).

Performance marks, legal marks, and quality-management marks are different things, so mixing them up will fool you.

Group Key standards What it guarantees
European performance EN388 / EN407 / EN511 / EN ISO 374 How strong, per hazard
US performance ANSI/ISEA 105 / 138 Cut and impact strength (grams, kN)
Market and chemical regulation CE / REACH / FDA Legal to sell, no harmful substances
Korean certification KC / KCs / KS Domestic mandatory and voluntary marks

Put simply: EN and ANSI say “how strong” (performance), CE and KC say “legal to sell” (regulation), and ISO 9001 says “the factory makes it consistently” (quality management).

A mark like SGS is the name of a test lab, not a performance grade.

Work glove label acronyms, sorted by two questions A map sorting work glove certifications by two questions. Left, ‘How strong?’, holds performance standards: European EN388 (abrasion, cut, tear, puncture, impact), EN407 (heat and fire), EN511 (cold), EN ISO 374 (chemicals), and US ANSI/ISEA 105 (cut, A1 to A9, in grams) and ANSI/ISEA 138 (impact, in kN). Right, ‘Legal to sell?’, holds regulation: market and chemical rules CE, REACH, FDA, and Korean marks KCs (mandatory safety certification for organic-chemical and insulating gloves), KC and KS. Below, marks that are not grades: ISO 9001 (quality management) and SGS (a test lab’s name). How strong? Performance — a grade per hazard Legal to sell? Regulation and Korean marks European performance EN388 Mechanical hazards abrasion, cut, tear, puncture, impact EN407 Heat and fire EN511 Cold EN ISO 374 Chemicals US performance ANSI/ISEA 105 Cut, A1 to A9 measured in grams ANSI/ISEA 138 Impact measured in kN Market and chemical rules CE Legal to sell? EU market mark REACH Restricts harmful chemicals FDA Food contact US Korean certification KCs Mandatory safety cert organic-chemical and insulating gloves KC · KS Mandatory and voluntary Korean domestic marks Not a grade On labels, but not ratings ISO 9001 Consistent production (quality mgmt) SGS Name of a test lab
Figure 1. Label acronyms split into “how strong” (performance) and “legal to sell” (regulation). ISO 9001 and SGS are not grades.

Reading the EN388 code, just one line

A label code like 4X43EP is a glove’s stat card. Read it left to right: abrasion, old cut test, tear, puncture, new cut test, impact. One line holds the whole capability of the glove.

For example, 4X43EP means top abrasion grade (4), old cut test skipped (X), tear grade 4, puncture grade 3, new cut grade E, and impact passed (P). The full grade table and per-slot thresholds get unpacked in the dedicated EN388 post.

The US ANSI scale counts in grams

The US ANSI cut scale uses a different unit from Europe. Where Europe sorts gloves into levels (1 to 5), ANSI reports the weight it took for a blade to cut through, measured in grams. It runs from A1 (weakest) to A9 (strongest), nine steps in all.

That is why the same glove often carries both EN and ANSI marks. How to line up the two systems gets a conversion table in the dedicated ANSI post.

The missing certification: this glove has no chemical resistance

That first Korean glove carried EN388, EN407, ANSI, FDA, REACH, CE, and SGS, but it had no chemical-resistance (EN ISO 374) certification. The chemical-protection mark was simply absent.

This is not a flaw. It is a glove built to stop cuts and heat, not chemicals. If you handle paint thinner or strong acids, this glove is not the answer. That is exactly why you read the certificate, not the marketing image.

For context, in Korea only two glove types require mandatory safety certification (KCs): organic-chemical safety gloves and electrical insulating gloves. Chemical and electrical gloves, at least, are checked by the state itself.

How chemical certification actually works is unpacked in the EN ISO 374 post.

So how do you choose

The order is simple. First, define your hazard (cut, heat, cold, chemical, electrical). Second, read the rating for that hazard. Third, confirm legality and harmful substances with CE, REACH, and KC. The rating only means something once you have named the hazard.

Choosing a work glove in three steps A flowchart of the three-step glove choice. Step 1: name your job’s hazard (cut, heat, cold, chemical, electrical). Step 2: read the rating for that hazard: cut is EN388 and ANSI, heat is EN407, cold is EN511, chemical is EN ISO 374, electrical is IEC 60903; chemical and electrical gloves require KCs certification in Korea. Step 3: confirm legality and harmful substances with CE, REACH, and KC. Example below: the first glove’s label had EN388, EN407, ANSI, FDA, REACH, CE, and SGS but no EN ISO 374, so it is not a chemical glove. 1 Name the hazard your job’s risk 2 Read its rating the standard for that hazard 3 Check it’s legal and free of harmful substances Cut EN388 ANSI/ISEA 105 Heat EN407 Cold EN511 Chemical EN ISO 374 KCs mandatory in Korea Electrical IEC 60903 KCs mandatory in Korea CE legal to sell REACH harmful substances KC Korean certification Example: the first glove’s label read EN388 · EN407 · ANSI · FDA · REACH · CE · SGS The chemical slot (EN ISO 374) is empty → a cut-and-heat glove, not one for thinner or strong acids.
Figure 2. The order: hazard → that hazard’s rating → legality and substances. A rating only means something once you have named the hazard.

This series digs into one standard at a time. Next up is the most-searched one: a full decode of the EN388 six-character code.

More in this series

Each glove certification, one standard at a time.

Sources and further reading

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