Korean gov't aims to increase paternity leave to 70% by 2030

Home > National > Social Affairs

Korean gov't aims to increase paternity leave to 70% by 2030

Published: 03 Dec. 2024, 18:37 Updated: 03 Dec. 2024, 18:54

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

A nurse take cares of newborn babies in a hospital in Seoul last month. [NEWS1]

The Korean government on Tuesday set plans to enable 70 percent of working fathers to take paternity leave over the next seven years to boost the nation’s chronically low birthrate and to foster a parenting-friendly environment.

On Tuesday, the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy convened its sixth emergency response meeting on the population agenda to set a yearly plan and specific performance indicators. The committee decided on a goal to raise paternity leave usage rates from 6.8 percent in 2022 to 50 percent by 2027 and 70 percent by 2030.

The committee also announced its plan to halve the ratio of women leaving the workforce after childbirth by 2030.

According to the committee, among women aged 30 to 44, 22.3 percent are currently economically inactive. The government said it will work toward lowering the ratio to 15 percent by 2027 and only 10 percent by 2030.

Such specific targets are a part of the government’s key agenda to attain a total fertility rate of 1 child in 2030. Last year’s total fertility rate — the average number of births projected for a woman during her reproductive years — was a record low of 0.72.

The government is pursuing a two-track objective: helping women stay in the workforce and encouraging men to shoulder the parenting burden.

The committee said it will continuously review and inspect how policies designed to enhance the work-life balance of parents are being implemented on-site and how they are affecting the birthrate.

In the newly announced scheme, the number and ratio of parental leave and career disruptions after childbirth have appeared to be variables either pushing up or decreasing the birthrate.

The committee assessed that raising the monthly salary upper limit during paternity leave to 2.5 million won ($1,784) from the previous 1.5 million won and making short-term paternity leave available for two weeks would lower hurdles of working fathers joining paternity leave.

The committee also promised to monitor whether the current welfare system allows young couples to get married and give childbirth without financial difficulties.

Particularly, the government said it will expand beneficiaries of fertility testing from 80,000 people this year to 210,000 by 2027 and 240,000 by 2030. The government will also continuously track the number of young Koreans delaying their marriages due to economic troubles.

In a press release, the committee called for close cooperation between all governmental ministries and agencies, saying the population agenda has a “complex nature requiring both long-term and short-term goals."

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]