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One of the reasons why women in Korea do not have children is because of the burden of raising children. Multicultural families who married into Korea probably also felt this. Women are responsible for a large part of childcare, and men often neglect it for various reasons. Therefore, the Korean government is said to be promoting the ‘6+6 parental leave system’ starting next year to encourage men to participate in childcare. Shall we take a look?
Will the ‘6+6 parental leave system’ work?
*What is the ‘6+6 parental leave system’? : The ‘6+6 parental leave system’ is a system that allows couples with children under 18 months of age to receive parental leave benefits of up to 39 million won for the first 6 months starting next year.
*Is the payment method unusual? : '6+6 parental leave system': If both spouses' wages exceed 4.5 million won, the first month of parental leave is 4 million won (2 million + 2 million), the second month is 5 million won(2.5 million + 2.5 million), and the third month. 6 million won (3 million + 3 million) is paid in gradually increasing amounts. So, in the last sixth month, you can receive 9 million won (4.5 million + 4.5 million). The reason for using this method is to encourage the husband to take childcare leave as long as possible.
*The ‘6+6 parental leave system’ is advantageous, right? : If only one of the couple uses parental leave, the maximum parental leave benefit that can be received is 1.5 million won per month, so it is much more advantageous for the couple to use it together. However, if a couple's wages are 3 million won each, it increases in the same way until the third month, and the same wage is paid for the fourth to sixth months as the third month, so in the end, the person who receives the higher wages is at an advantage.
It’s still difficult to use parental leave!
*Childcare leave available only to women: Currently, women are overwhelmingly taking childcare leave in Korea, at 70%. The Ministry of Employment and Labor expects that more men will participate in parental leave through the ‘6+6 parental leave system.’ However, some point out that such a system is meaningless in a situation where a work culture that allows free use of parental leave has not yet been established.
*Korea, a barren area for parental leave: As a result of a survey conducted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor of businesses across the country in 2021, only 11.4% of companies used parental leave in that year. This means that 89 out of 100 companies still cannot freely use parental leave.
Is this how we can overcome the low birth rate?
*Childcare leave that cannot be used because the company cares about it: The reasons why workers cannot comfortably apply for childcare leave are ① Very small number of workers (38.3%) ② Increased workload of fellow workers (24.7%) ③ Difficulty recruiting replacement workers (11.6%) ④ Organizational culture (8.1%) appeared in that order, including internal awareness of the company. Even if you take childcare leave with difficulty, you have to endure disadvantages such as being excluded from promotions.
*The use of childcare leave must be mandatory: Because childcare leave is a legally guaranteed system, all workplaces cannot refuse it. However, the reality is that there is a culture in which childcare leave cannot be used.
Therefore, the Korean government must make it mandatory for people who have children to use childbirth and childcare-related systems, such as childcare leave. Wouldn’t that help overcome Korea’s low birth rate to some extent?
Mary Eve of Papaya Story
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