Companies hold the key to address low birthrate
SOHN HAE-YONGThe author is the business news editor of the JoongAng Ilbo.
Song Ri-won, who works for SK On, and his wife are the first couple to have quadruplets through natural delivery for the first birth in Korea. The battery company’s consideration contributed to the celebration. When Song joined SK On in June 2022, his wife immediately visited a fertility clinic as “SK is a good company to have and raise children.”
Three months later, quadruplets came to them like a blessing. They were worried about medical and exam costs, but the company’s benefits lessened the burden. The flexible work system also helped. Song could use his leave without getting approval from his boss and adjust his work hours to accompany his wife for doctor’s appointments.
Kim Hwan, who works for Posco, and his wife are the first couple to have quadruplets through natural delivery though they were not their first children. The steel-making company also offers work-from-home during the childcare period, flexible work hours, and infertility treatment assistance. The couple have five children, including their first daughter born two years earlier than the quadruplets.
Kim said that he feels loyal to the company, thanks to the company’s support for childbirth and childcare. These are the examples of how companies’ support of childcare and childbirth can be a solution to the country’s low birthrate.
Korea’s low birthrate crisis is so serious that 45.8 percent of the newlyweds do not have children until the fifth year of marriage. The low birth crisis is a result of a combination of factors, including parenting environment, housing, employment and education.
To get over the birth cliff, social awareness for the work life balance should be established. This cannot be done with government efforts alone. Workplaces of the parents who raise children must cooperate.
I am convinced by the idea proposed by Lee In-sil, former head of Statistics Korea. She is now the director of the Korean Peninsula Population Institute for Future, a private think tank. Lee proposes a novel system for companies to be scored for how many employees are married and how many children they have. Childbirth friendly systems also will be evaluated so that companies with high marks can be provided with exceptional tax benefits and subsidies.
The system can start from the top 100 companies and then expand to medium and small-sized companies. She explains that companies now must look at the assistance for childbirth and childcare from the perspective of investing for future competitiveness, not as an expense.
Childbirth and childcare-friendly companies improve not just the fertility rate. When the satisfaction level of employees who have or want to have children goes up, the turnover rate will fall, and the costs for hiring and training also will decrease. Work concentration and productivity would improve and the corporate image would be enhanced.
Active participation of companies is essential to prevent the disaster of our low birthrate. The government must devise various incentives so that childbirth and childcare-friendly management will prove to be a good choice for companies.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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