Family Care Leave Allowance Up to 500,000 Won Per Person... Support Expanded from 5 to 10 Days (Update)

Minister Lee Jae-gap of the Ministry of Employment and Labor is briefing on the COVID-19 livelihood support measures for vulnerable groups at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 30th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Due to the delay in school openings caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, employees who take family care leave to look after their children at home will receive government support for leave expenses for up to 10 days.

According to the government on the 8th, the Ministry of Employment and Labor has decided to extend the current maximum support period for family care leave expenses from 5 days to up to 10 days.

Family care leave is a system under the revised Gender Equality Employment Act implemented since January this year, allowing workers who urgently need to care for family members to take up to 10 days off.

The government currently supports workers with children under 8 years old (2nd grade in elementary school) or disabled children under 18 years old with 50,000 KRW per day for up to 5 days when they take family care leave due to the impact of the COVID-19 situation, such as delayed school openings.

The decision to extend the support period for family care leave expenses is due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation, which has resulted in longer periods of kindergarten and elementary school students staying at home.

Kindergartens have been closed indefinitely, and elementary school students in grades 1 to 3 are conducting remote classes starting from the 20th of this month, requiring them to stay at home continuously.

With the extension of the support period for family care leave expenses, workers taking family care leave can receive up to 500,000 KRW in support. Dual-income families can receive up to 1,000,000 KRW combined for the couple.

The government has also decided to apply this measure retroactively to workers who have already taken 10 days of family care leave, providing them with the expense support.

From the 16th of last month, when the Ministry of Employment and Labor began accepting applications for family care leave expenses, until the 7th of this month, a total of 57,587 applications have been received by the ministry.