Kim Hyun-bin began his journalism career at Arirang TV from 2012 to 2017, specializing in defense, foreign affairs and the economy. In 2018, he joined The Korea Times, covering society and business, and is currently responsible for embassy affairs.
Working overtime reduces married women's pregnancy chances
By Kim Hyun-bin
Even one hour of overtime a week reduces the chances of pregnancy among married women while night and weekend shifts also lower single women's chances of getting married, a study showed, Tuesday.
Experts say enhancing the working conditions of women is crucial in increasing the country's marriage and birthrate.
According to a report titled “Reasons behind Korea's low birthrate and economic effects” released by the National Assembly Budget Office, if one hour is added to a married woman's weekly working hours, it decreases the chance of her getting pregnant within a year by 0.34 percentage points.
The study excluded other conditions including age, education background and income from the equation.
When the woman is a worker at assistant manager level or lower, the extra one hour of work a week reduces her chance of pregnancy by 0.43 percentage points, and in the case of a woman's first pregnancy attempt, the rate fell by 1 percentage point.
The report was based on a survey from 2007 to 2014 on women's working conditions, promotions, work-life balance and decisions on pregnancy.
For single women, an increase in total working hours a week did not have an effect on their chances of getting married.
However, night and weekend shifts dropped the probability of marrying within a year by 3.7 percentage points.
When implementing a flexible working hour system, single women's chances of marriage jumped by 7.1 percentage points, and working at home also increased marriage probability by 10 percentage points.
“The increase in marriage cannot equate directly to an increase in birthrate. However, implementing flexible working hours and telecommuting systems could have a positive effect on boosting the country's birthrate,” the report stated.
Korea is known for long working hours which experts point out is the reason behind the country's low birthrate. Here, employees worked for 2,024 hours a year on average, becoming the second-highest among the 33 OECD nations, just behind Mexico.