Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
Men in Korea still reluctant to take paternity leave
By Kim Rahn
More than 70 percent of male workers want to take paternity leave, but corporate culture prevents them from doing so, survey shows. / gettyimagesbank
By Kim Rahn
Despite a growing number of men wishing to take paternity leave, Korea's conservative corporate culture makes it difficult to do so, a survey showed Sunday.
In the survey of 1,578 employees by Job Korea and Albamon, 84.9 percent of men and 88.7 percent of women supported the idea of fathers taking childcare leave.
More than 70 percent of male employees said they wished to take up to one year of childcare leave while their partners kept working. The number is more than three times the figure recorded in 2015 ― 22.5 percent.
Such changes in the recognition of men's childcare leave have followed an improvement in relevant regulations ― the allowance given to a parent on childcare leave has increased, and mothers' and fathers' parental leave will be allowed to overlap starting on Feb. 28.
However, despite the changes in awareness and systems, the reality is still far from ideal.
Only 11.1 percent of male respondents said they were free to take the leave, while 38.4 percent said they could not. Another 50.1 percent said they would consider taking paternity leave if they had to, although they would be under pressure from employers or co-workers.
Asked why they could not take childcare leave, 40.6 percent cited a corporate culture where men do not do so; 17.2 percent said those taking the leave would be at a disadvantage in getting promotions or in other evaluations; and 15.7 percent said the childcare allowance was not enough to make up for the salary they would lose.
Only 26.2 percent said they had a male colleague who had taken childcare leave. Of the workers who had such a colleague, nearly half were from public organizations and companies, followed by large-sized firms, foreign companies, and small and medium-sized businesses.
A total of 55.4 percent said it was impossible to attain a work-life balance, while 41.3 percent said they could do so to an extent, although not perfectly.