By Lee Kyung-min
Only 3.8 percent of public servants working for the country's 13 ministries took paternity leave last year, data showed Thursday.
According to the data submitted from the Ministry of Interior and Safety to Rep. Yoon Jong-pil of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, out of 18,206 ministry officials eligible, only 691 took the leave last year.
This indicates only four out of 100 male officials with children aged between eight and nine took the leave for at least one month. Of the total, officials from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family accounted for 22.2 percent, followed by the education ministry (8.9 percent), unification (6.1 percent) and defense (5.8 percent). The number of male officials taking the leave is on the rise over the past few years. Last year's figure at 3.8 percent was an increase from 3.2 in 2016; 2.5 in 2015 and 1.9 percent in 2014.
Currently, public servants can take up to three years of parental leave including one year of paid leave. Those who are on leave are eligible to receive up to 80 percent of their regular monthly wage between 700,000 won ($670) and 1.5 million won for the first three months of the leave. For the remaining nine months, only up to 40 percent of the regular monthly wage will be paid between 500,000 won and 1 million won.
The government also implemented a law to raise the payout to up to 2 million won for the first three months for husbands who take the leave after their wives' maternity leave ends. The government revised the law to recognize the leave period taken by parents for the second child and younger children so as not to be disadvantaged in applying for promotion.
The figures come amid the fast falling birth rates in Korea, where a growing number of women delay or altogether refuse to get married and have babies due to the social “norm” that defines childbirth and childrearing as responsibilities that fall only on women.
Statistics Korea showed the number of newborns was 357,700 last year, an 11.9 percent drop from the previous year. The downward trend over the past two decades is expected to further continue with the country's birthrate dropping below one.
A recently unveiled measure by the Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy seeks to induce changes from the parents by helping increase the quality of life for caregivers, a major shift from the earlier drive which critics said “obsessed” over the rapidly falling such rates.