Gov't considers allowing hiring of foreign housekeepers

The Korean government is conducting a study on opening the domestic worker market to foreigners, amid a serious manpower shortage. gettyimagesbank

Some experts say foreign national domestic workers could support Korean women's economic activities

By Jun Ji-hye

The government has undertaken research on measures to legalize the hiring of foreign nationals as domestic workers, as part of efforts to bring down employment costs and expand women's economic activities.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor said it recently entrusted the research to the Korea Employment Welfare Pension Institute to explore ways of opening the housekeeper market to people regardless of their nationality.

Under the current laws, Koreans and ethnic Koreans from China, in addition to foreigners with permanent residence status or those married to Koreans, can be employed as domestic workers here.

The ministry's move came as demand has been increasing rapidly for domestic workers who can offer childcare or other housework services, especially amidst the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, at the same time that the supply has been gradually thinning out, resulting in an increase in costs.

"For working couples, it is almost impossible to take care of their baby without help from their parents or a housemaid," said Lee Joo-hee, a 34-year-old office worker in Seoul who has a three-year-old son.

"In my case, I could not receive help either from my mother or my mother-in-law, thus I had to call three to four employment agencies to hire a housemaid. I am not that satisfied with the maid I hired, but I cannot fire her because I know it will be very difficult to hire another person now."

According to job portal operator Mediawill Networks, the number of job ads for domestic workers has increased sharply by 322.4 percent between February of last year and January of this year amid the pandemic, compared to the figure tallied before the pandemic era, between February 2019 and January 2020.

Statistics Korea's data shows a serious supply shortage, as the number of working-couple households nationwide was estimated at 5.05 million last year, while the number of people working as housekeepers was estimated at only about 150,000 to 400,000.

The imbalance between supply and demand has led to an increase in prices. The price index with regard to the costs of domestic workers last year rose 23.1 percent, compared to the 2015 figure, according to Statistics Korea.

This 23.1 percent price increase is notable, considering that the consumer price index during the same period increased by only about 5.4 percent.

The supply shortage has worsened as more and more Korean people in their 30s to 40s tend to be reluctant to work as domestic workers, while the prolonged pandemic has significantly reduced the number of ethnic Koreans arriving from China.

An official from the Ministry of Employment and Labor said the ministry has begun to consider including foreign nationals in the domestic housemaid market, as it has recognized the seriousness of the situation, which has the potential to exert an adverse influence on falling birthrates and women's career development.

"Our study began in March and will be completed in November," the official said. "The study will be focused on analyzing overseas cases and studying detailed measures on how to supply foreign housekeepers to the domestic market."

The ministry said that the government will decide whether to legalize the hiring of foreign nationals as domestic workers, after a new law aimed at improving the working conditions of domestic workers in general is enacted. This timeline means that the decision will be made next year at the earliest.

A bill to establish the new law was approved in the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee on April 29 and is expected to be put to a vote during the Assembly plenary session at the end of the month. If the bill is approved, the law will take effect after a year.

The new law is designed to bring Korea's existing approximately 600,000 domestic workers, who have been unable to receive proper protections, into the law's purview as regular workers, so that they can be categorized as wage laborers, as well as guaranteed annual paid leave, severance pay and the four major types of insurance.

The government is hoping the law will help systematize the domestic labor market, improve the working conditions of existing domestic workers and eventually resolve the supply shortage, reducing the need to open the market to foreign nationals.

The official said the ministry would make a decision about the employment of foreign nationals as domestic workers if the supply shortage continues even after the law is implemented.

Some experts say that opening the housekeeper market to foreign nationals is expected to help boost women's economic activities and raise birthrates to some extent.

"The measure will help increase the supply of domestic workers, especially from Southeast Asian countries, though there is a likelihood for them to encounter a language barrier here," said Kim Sung-hee, a professor at the Graduate School of Labor Studies at Korea University.

"In Korea, women tend to be forced to do more housework and childcare than men do, even though they are working couples. Thus, this measure could help alleviate some difficulties facing working mothers, potentially boosting women's economic activities."