Yoo Seung-min Announces 'Low Birthrate Pledge'... Adds Specifics to '3-Year Parental Leave'

Strengthening National Responsibility from Childbirth to Childcare
Increase in Parental Leave Pay and Standardization of Regular Education Hours

On the 5th, former lawmaker Yoo released a video announcing policies related to low birth rates on his YouTube channel 'Yoo Seung-min TV.'
[Photo by Yoo Seung-min TV screenshot]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] Yoo Seung-min, a former lawmaker and presidential candidate of the People Power Party, announced seven pledges on the 5th to address the low birthrate issue. Building on his 2017 presidential campaign’s first pledge of '3 years of parental leave,' he supplemented the plan with practical measures such as 'increasing parental leave pay' and 'standardizing regular school hours.' The pledges also include ways to enhance the state’s responsibility for childbirth and childcare.

On the day, Yoo released a video announcing the pledges on his YouTube channel 'Yoo Seung-min TV,' stating, "Before the population crisis worsens, the government must mobilize all policies to solve the low birthrate problem." He added, "We will definitely create a country where people want to raise children, and where marriage and childbirth are blessings, not burdens." He presented principles to reduce the economic and time burdens of childbirth and childcare and to strengthen the state’s responsibility for childcare.

The core of the pledge is to guarantee three years of parental leave for both parents, allowing them to split it into three periods until their child turns 18. In particular, to increase feasibility, he said the policy would also apply to private sector employees. This was a pledge he emphasized in the previous presidential election.

The introduction of a 'parental insurance' system was also a pledge mentioned during the last presidential campaign. This system aims to guarantee support payments during childbirth and childcare periods for those not covered by employment insurance, a blind spot in the parental leave system. However, he went a step further from his previous pledge by promising to increase parental leave pay. Previously, he proposed one year of paid leave and two years of unpaid leave. He explained, "With one year of paid leave and two years of unpaid leave, income decreases in the second and third years, so people tend to avoid taking leave." He added, "We will increase parental leave pay and ensure that in the second and third years, a portion of the regular wage is still paid."

Yoo proposed pledges to strengthen the state’s responsibility from childbirth through childcare. At the childbirth stage, he pledged to introduce a 'visiting nurse system' to care for the health of mothers and newborns. He also promised to expand medical expense support for premature and congenitally disabled infants and to operate a 24/7 child emergency medical center year-round.

At the childcare stage, he pledged to expand public and national daycare centers and reduce the number of children per teacher to improve the quality of childcare for parents. He promised to extend the current child allowance, which is paid up to age 7, to age 18, and to significantly increase the number of part-time childcare facilities.

Yoo also focused on the specificity of childcare policies. He proposed standardizing regular school hours for kindergartens and elementary schools to 4 p.m. and operating after-school care classes from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. This specifies concrete hours to minimize care gaps for working parents. Additionally, to strengthen public education in elementary school English and math classes, he proposed expanding personnel related to after-school classes, including native English teachers, teachers from colleges of education, and temporary teachers.