Office Workers Still Face Disadvantages Due to Marriage, Childbirth, and Parental Leave
Total Fertility Rate 0.84... Lowest Among OECD Countries
Experts Say "Low Birthrate Policies Must Start with Thorough Diagnosis"
It has been revealed that workers continue to experience power harassment in the workplace, such as being disadvantaged due to recent pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare./Photo by Yonhap News
[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] As South Korea's low birthrate problem worsens day by day, it has been revealed that cases of discrimination such as being forced to resign from work simply because of pregnancy are frequent.
Despite last year's birthrate in South Korea hitting an all-time low and facing a serious problem, there are still criticisms that support for pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare remains insufficient. Experts have suggested that the government needs to reconsider its diagnosis of the current situation and policy direction regarding the low birthrate issue.
The civic group 'Workplace Power Abuse 119' disclosed cases on the 1st where individuals suffered disadvantages at work due to pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare. According to the report, employee A, who worked at a hospital, was pressured to resign by the hospital director after announcing her pregnancy and was treated as a "nonexistent person" at the company, experiencing power abuse.
Furthermore, the hospital director publicly disparaged A by telling other employees, "She said she had no plans to get pregnant when she joined, but she is a fraud who got pregnant secretly." Due to the director's power abuse, A reportedly suffered extreme stress and eventually resigned.
There was also a case where an employee was notified of dismissal while discussing maternity leave due to pregnancy. Employee B stated, "They dismissed me for business reasons but posted a job opening for the department I worked in," claiming, "It was effectively a dismissal to avoid granting maternity leave."
Recently, cases like A and B, where employees face disadvantages at work due to pregnancy and childbirth, have been continuous. Last month, a public petition on the Blue House website stirred controversy after a pregnant nurse assistant, who conceived a child after six years of infertility, was dismissed after announcing her pregnancy and suffered workplace harassment.
This phenomenon is also reflected in statistics. According to the '2019 Survey on the Economic Activities of Women Experiencing Career Interruption' released by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the 12th, 35% of 6,020 unmarried and married women aged 25 to 54 in South Korea reported experiencing career interruption due to marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, or family care.
Additionally, only 43.2% of those who took parental leave returned to work, which is less than half. It was also confirmed that it takes an average of 7.8 years to re-enter employment after career interruption. Although promoting parental leave is considered a key measure against low birthrate, many employees still feel pressured by supervisors or actually suffer disadvantages when applying for leave.
Last year, South Korea's birth rate recorded an all-time low. According to the "2020 Birth and Death Statistics Preliminary Results" announced by Statistics Korea on the 24th of last month, the number of births last year was 272,400, marking the first time the figure fell below 300,000. /Photo by Yonhap News
Meanwhile, South Korea's birthrate last year recorded an all-time low. According to the '2020 Birth and Death Statistics Preliminary Results' announced by Statistics Korea on the 24th of last month, the number of births last year was 272,400, a decrease of 30,300 from the previous year, breaking the 300,000 mark for the first time.
The total fertility rate, which is the expected number of children a woman of childbearing age will have in her lifetime, was 0.84, about half the average of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at 1.63. Among the 37 OECD member countries, South Korea is the only country with a total fertility rate below 1.
Office worker Kim (31) said, "They tell us to have children, but even if I get married, I don't feel like having kids. With the current income, it's hard to manage the cost of living and taxes, and if I have a child, I might lose my job and face more financial difficulties. On top of that, if I have a child, I need to secure a home and cover childcare expenses, which is just overwhelming."
Given this situation, the government has invested a massive budget of 225 trillion won from 2006 to last year under the name of 'responding to low birthrate.' Last year, about 37.6 trillion won was spent on low birthrate budgets. However, it was confirmed that many items in the government's low birthrate measures included areas not directly related to low birthrate, such as housing support for youth and newlyweds, education support for children, multicultural and North Korean defector students, and various cultural policy supports.
While encouraging women to give birth to solve the low birthrate problem, the government's policies are criticized for not moving in an effective direction to solve the issue. Experts have suggested the need to reconsider the diagnosis of the current situation and policy direction regarding the low birthrate problem.
Professor Lee Seokhwan of Hanyang University's Department of Policy Science pointed out, "The low birthrate problem is a complex issue involving overall societal factors such as job stability, real estate problems, childcare costs, and changes in people's perceptions of marriage and childbirth, so it cannot be diagnosed with a single cause."
Regarding companies, he explained, "When employees take parental leave, companies have to pay some salary and fill the work gap with new personnel, which involves time, procedures, and costs. Since profit-seeking is the core of companies, they inevitably hesitate. This is a problem that is difficult to legally enforce on companies, hard for the government to financially support, and generally challenging."
Professor Lee emphasized, "Although the government is pouring a huge budget into low birthrate policies, it is actually implementing policies that deviate from solving the fundamental problems. Rather than deciding 'what policies to implement,' a thorough diagnosis of the problem is necessary first. Decisions should not be made solely based on overseas cases, documents, or statistics, but by examining what is happening on the ground and what damages are occurring. Even if it takes a long time, an accurate diagnosis of the problem is essential to establish acceptable and effective policies."
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