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Record 132,000 Koreans took parental leave last year — and 32 percent were men

Published: 25 Feb. 2025, 07:00

CHO YONG-JUN
[email protected]

Parents look at nursery products at the 46th BeFe Babyfair, held at Coex in southern Seoul on Feb. 6. [NEWS1]

More workers in Korea, including a growing number of fathers, are taking parental leave.

According to data the Ministry of Employment and Labor released Sunday, the number of workers who took parental leave in 2024 rose 5.2 percent from the previous year to 132,535, a record high since the policy's introduction 1987.

Notably, the number of new fathers opting for leave increased 18.3 percent to 41,829 over the same period. 31.6 percent of workers opting for the benefit were fathers, marking the first time the proportion has surpassed 30 percent.

The number of fathers taking parental leave has increased drastically over the last 10 years, as only 4,872, or 5.6 percent of the total, were male in 2015.

The uptick follows a series of governmental policy tweaks. Last year, the Labor Ministry extended Korea's paid leave, for parents of children 18 months or younger, to six months from the previous three months and upped monthly payments from 3 million won ($2,102.62) to 4.5 million won.

Companies have also introduced additional policies to encourage their employees to take parental leave. Doosan now pays coworkers up to 500,000 won if a member of their team goes on parental leave for longer than six months, pitched as a way to “relieve pressure” on those taking leave, as many fear that their absence could increase their teammates' workload, Doosan said Sunday.

Doosan also raised its childbirth grant and increased the length of both its maternity and paternity leave. Similarly, many prominent companies, including Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Electronics, have incorporated a more thorough parental leave policy.

The benefit of paternity leave, however, has yet to fully reach employees of smaller companies. Despite 80.9 percent of the total workforce working at small- and medium-sized enterprises as of 2021, only 56.8 percent of the employees who took parental leave in 2024 worked at such firms.

BY KIM MIN-JOONG, CHO YONG-JUN [[email protected]]