South Korea boosts parental leave for dads amid baby crisis

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South Korea aims to significantly increase the number of fathers taking parental leave, the presidential committee on population policy announced Tuesday.

The move is part of broader government efforts to encourage couples to have children and address the country’s declining fertility rate, the lowest in the world.

Compounding this issue, nearly 20 percent of South Korea’s population is aged 65 or older, putting the nation on the precipice of becoming a “super-aged” society and raising concerns about long-term economic productivity.

The committee has set a target of 70 percent of fathers with children eight years old or younger taking parental leave by 2030. This figure would match the proportion of mothers who did so in 2022, according to the Yonhap News Agency. By comparison, only 6.8 percent of fathers of young children took leave that year.

Newsweek reached out to the South Korean embassy in the U.S. by email with a request for comment.

A woman pushes her child in a stroller in Seoul. The South Korean government has unveiled new policies to encourage more fathers to take parental leave.

Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images

The announcement follows a series of pro-natal policies aimed at tackling what President Yoon Suk Yeol has called a “demographic national emergency.” These include measures to make parental leave more flexible and increase compensation for those taking time off.

Mothers and fathers are currently eligible for up to one year of leave that can be spread across three intervals. Starting in February, this allowance will be extended to 18 months per person, to be taken over up to four periods, provided both parents avail themselves of the leave.

Additionally, the cap on compensation for employed parents will increase from the current 1.5 million won ($1,058) to 2.5 million won for the first three months of leave. The cap will drop to 2 million for the second three months and 1.6 million for the final six months of the first year.

Policymakers hope these measures will reduce the share of mothers who pause their careers due to childbirth from the current 22 percent to 10 percent by 2030, Yonhap reported.

The committee hinted at these and other pro-natal measures in October.

Other policies in the pipeline include longer leave for women who experience stillbirth and their partners, better access to postpartum care centers, and tax breaks for small and medium-sized enterprises with “excellent” work-family balance policies.

chart visualization

However, it remains unclear how ongoing political turbulence in South Korea—stemming from President Yoon’s surprise declaration and subsequent repeal of martial law and opposition efforts to impeach him—will affect the rollout of these measures.

South Korea’s fertility rate, or the average number of expected babies per woman, dipped to 0.72 last year. A rate of 2.1 is considered the minimum to replace a population.

The trend has persisted despite successive governments investing over $200 billion in 16 years into policies such as cash incentives, fertility treatment subsidies and childcare services.

A workplace culture resistant to taking time off for family, coupled with the rising cost of urban living, stagnant wages and shifting attitudes among younger South Koreans, are frequently cited as contributing factors to the ongoing decline.

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