Several parts combine into one character.

働 is one of the most important examples of a 国字 / kokuji — a "domestic character" invented in Japan, NOT inherited from Chinese. About 200 such characters were created over centuries by Japanese scribes to fill semantic gaps. 働 is the most useful and widely recognized: 亻 (person) + 動 (movement) = "to work / labor".

Key fact for English speakers: This character does NOT exist meaningfully in modern Chinese. Mainland Chinese learners of Japanese will not recognize 働 — they use entirely different characters for "work": 工作 (gōngzuò) or 上班 (shàngbān, "go to work"). Korean similarly uses 勞動 (nodong, labor) without the 働 character. So 働 is one of the cleanest examples of how Japanese script extends beyond shared CJK characters.

Japanese: on-reading ドウ (dō) — 労働 (rōdō, labor — politically and socially weighted term: 労働組合 rōdō-kumiai, labor union; 労働基準法 rōdō-kijun-hō, Labor Standards Act), 稼働 (kadō, in operation — used for machines/factories: 稼働中 = "in operation"), 実働 (jitsudō, actually working). Kun-reading はたら.く (hatara.ku, to work) is among the very highest-frequency Japanese verbs — 働く covers ALL kinds of work: physical labor, office work, brain work. 一生懸命に働く (isshōkenmei ni hataraku, to work with full commitment).

Derived words: 働き者 (hatarakimono, hardworking person), 働き方 (hatarakikata, way of working — central to current Japanese workforce reform discourse 働き方改革).

Memory aid: a person + movement = work. A character invented in Japan to capture the verb that mattered most to its bureaucratic class.

In Japan·働 = work (Japanese 国字, made in Japan)

In China·Not used in Chinese — 工作 (gōngzuò) for work