Jung Da-hyun is a reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues in Korea, including foreign residents, education, environment and politics. Driven by a deep interest in people’s stories, she focuses on investigative and feature reporting through direct interviews and field coverage. She received the Amnesty International Korea Media Award for her “Deepfake Crisis at Schools” series. Reach her at dahyun08@koreatimes.co.kr. Always open to hearing your stories.
Men account for over 30% of workers on parental leave in 1st half
gettyimagesbank
By Jung Da-hyun
One-third of employees who took parental leave in the first half of this year were men, marking the first time the proportion of men has surpassed 30 percent in Korea.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Sunday, 69,631 employees received their first child care leave allowance from the national employment insurance program between January and June this year.
Since the allowance is funded by employment insurance, these figures exclude public officials and teachers, who are not covered by this insurance.
In the first half of this year, the number of child care leave recipients increased by 3.2 percent compared to the same period last year, rising from 67,465.
While the number of women taking leave decreased slightly by 1.8 percent to 47,171, the number of men on leave surged by 15.7 percent to 22,460.
Men accounted for 32.3 percent of the initial recipients in the first half of the year, indicating that one in every three people on parental leave is now male. This represents a record-high proportion of men taking child care leave.
The proportion of men receiving the allowance has shown a steady increase over the years, rising from 8.7 percent in 2016 to 13.4 percent in 2017, 21.2 percent in 2019 and 26.2 percent in 2021. In 2022, the figure reached 28.9 percent, close to 30 percent, but declined slightly to 28 percent last year.
In large corporations with over 1,000 employees, 43.5 percent people taking parental leave in the first half of this year were men, nearly half of the total. Conversely, in smaller workplaces with fewer than 100 employees, the male ratio was just 22.7 percent, highlighting a significant disparity based on company size.
The increase in child care leave among male workers is widely attributed to the expansion of the national allowance for couples taking leave simultaneously. This suggests that the primary barrier to men has been the low salary level.
In response, the government is working to raise the upper limit of parental leave benefits from 1.5 million won ($1,102) to 2.5 million won for the first three months as a measure to combat the low birthrate.