By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
A record number of parents and prospective parents were on paternity and maternity leave as of January.
According to the Korea Employment Information Service (KIES), 21,301 workers were on leave in January, a 50 percent increase from a year ago.
The total amount paid out for leave benefits was tallied at 14.9 billion won, around a 4.7 billion increase from a year ago.
This is the first time that more than 20,000 people have received the benefits since the system was put into effect in 2001.
The KIES sees it as a sign of parental leave taking root as a social system in line with a nationwide campaign to boost childbirth.
Workers whose children are under three years old can take up to one-year "paid" leave.
Those taking parental leave are entitled to 500,000 won in monthly benefits for up to 12 months. They are paid from employment insurance.
Korea marked the lowest birthrate in the world last year at 1.15 ― in 1981, the rate was 2.57.
However, considering there are 1.3 million women aged between 25 and 34 on payrolls, the number of recipients appears to be very small.
The number of men on paternal leave is extremely low ― only 245 as of January, accounting for 1 percent of the total.
The Korea Labor Institute (KLI) has proposed reform of the current parental leave system. "The benefit set at 500,000 won per month is too small to encourage highly-paid professional females to leave work for children," the institute said.
"Most advanced countries have a proportional salary system during parental leave, not the flat rate system like ours. For example, France differentiates the amount of benefits by the number of children ― six months for firstborns and three years for seconds, which is helping it boost its once-dismal birthrate."
Career portal site Job Korea found in a survey of 295 married office workers that 81 percent had postponed or gave up childbirth due to their career.
However, more than 80 percent of them were willing to have two or more children, if the company provided in-house childcare facilities.
In addition to in-company nurseries, married workers wanted the company to support child rearing expenses and allow working from home.