Returning from Parental Leave, "Did You Rest Well?"... You Can't Have Kids at Companies Like This [K Population Strategy]

(5) Domestic Flexible Work and Parental Leave Status
Half of Couples 'Both Working'... Working Moms Reach 60% for the First Time
Increased Childcare Burden on Women... Men Still Reluctant to Take Parental Leave

Editor's NoteThe key to solving South Korea's population problem lies within companies. A workplace atmosphere that evaluates employees based on their work regardless of gender and a family-friendly culture are crucial to addressing the K population issue. Although low birth rates result from complex factors, it is important to ensure that workplace burdens do not become obstacles that make people hesitate to have children. Asia Economy visits companies leading family-friendly policies to identify the factors that enabled stable establishment of these systems and plans to explore multifaceted solutions with companies that lack realistic conditions. Through this, we encourage change starting from companies and analyze the government's role in making this possible. We listen to voices emphasizing that company culture and atmosphere that reduce psychological burdens are more critical than financial support, and propose alternatives from various perspectives.

Achieving a balance between work, childcare, and personal life?so-called 'Yukrabal (childcare and life balance)'?is the ultimate mission for working parents. In a reality where they cannot quit their jobs, which are their livelihood, nor give up their children, who are treasures of their lives, working parents engage in a daily tug-of-war between the two. The guilt and dissatisfaction from not being able to fully immerse themselves in either work or childcare weigh heavily on their hearts. Ultimately, they give up on having a 'second child.' Observing struggling senior working moms and working dads, junior employees who had prepared themselves for parenthood begin to entertain the dream of being part of the 'DINK (Dual Income No Kids) generation.'

Returning from Parental Leave, "Did You Rest Well?"... You Can't Have Kids at Companies Like This [K Population Strategy]

[Image source=Getty Images]

As the low birth rate issue emerges as South Korea's biggest social challenge, the perception is spreading that companies hold the key to solving it. Simply by adjusting the working methods of employees who are working moms and working dads, companies can establish the socio-economic foundation to balance work and childcare. Amid rapidly changing values regarding family life and gender roles and increasing female employment, forming a family-friendly environment and culture led by companies is key to change. Flexible work arrangements, including telecommuting and paternity leave for men, are cited as clues to solving the K population problem.

Employees' Lives Have Changed... Dual-Income Households Reach Record High

Half of married couples under their 50s in South Korea are dual-income households. According to Statistics Korea's '2022 Second Half Regional Employment Survey on Dual-Income and Single-Person Household Employment Status,' as of October 2022, the proportion of dual-income households was 46.1%, the highest since the 2015 statistical revision. By age group, the highest proportions were among those in their 40s and 50s (55.2%), but the growth rate was faster among those in their 30s and ages 15?29, indicating rapid increase. In the past, men were typically considered the 'head of household' as they engaged in work while women handled childcare and housework, but nowadays among childless MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) dual-income couples, a joke goes, "The head of our household is whoever earns more money."

The proportion of working moms entered the 60% range for the first time last year. According to Statistics Korea's employment status of married women, the employment rate of married women aged 15?54 living with children under 18 was 60.0% (2,609,000) in 2022. With women's social advancement, the female employment rate increased from 48.6% in 2012 to 52.9% in 2022, and the gender employment gap narrowed by about 4 percentage points during that period to 18.6 percentage points. The proportion of female regular employees in the top 100 companies by sales was 22.6% in 2022, the highest in the past five years.

Simply put, the world is changing rapidly. Various neologisms such as 'wife as the breadwinner,' '6 o'clock Cinderella,' and 'these days' husbands / absent dads' have emerged against this backdrop. Claudia Goldin, Harvard University professor who won the Nobel Prize in Economics last year for her research on women's labor market participation, mentioned South Korea's low birth rate issue at a press conference, stating, "Few countries have experienced economic changes as rapid as South Korea in the late 20th century, and few have transformed into a country concentrated in one city," adding, "It seems the Korean labor market is struggling to keep up with these changes quickly."

Childcare and Housework Burdens Fall on Women... "It's Not Easy to Dream of Having Children"

Despite social and economic changes, childcare and housework burdens still fall heavily on women. According to Statistics Korea data on average time use in dual-income households in 2019, husbands spent 39 minutes on household management, while wives spent 2 hours and 31 minutes, showing a significant difference. Time spent caring for children and other family members was 15 minutes for husbands and 36 minutes for wives. Although the proportion of dual-income households has increased, men's participation in childcare and housework remains insufficient.

That does not mean working dads are uninterested in childcare. Among men in their 30s, who are primarily involved in childbirth and childcare, the percentage who answered that they "prioritize family life over work" doubled from 11.7% in 2015 to 23.7% in 2021, and the gap with women narrowed sharply from 8.2 percentage points to 1.7 percentage points.

However, reality is harsh. Not only do they suffer from heavy workloads at work, but the atmosphere discourages men from taking paternity leave, making it difficult to even bring up the topic with their superiors. Considering that women's hourly wages are about 70% of men's, fathers in dual-income couples inevitably worry about income reduction if they take leave.

Ultimately, it is working moms who quit their jobs due to childcare. In 2022, 1,349,000 married women experienced career breaks, and 42% of them left their jobs due to childcare. Including those who quit for pregnancy, childbirth, and child education reasons, 7 out of 10 women still leave their jobs due to childcare. Recently, there is also an increasing trend of women quitting jobs because of elementary school children, including first graders, known as the 'graveyard of working moms.'

Time Essential for Childcare... Growing Demand for Flexible Work

Flexible work arrangements during childcare periods are considered a way to minimize career breaks and household economic losses regardless of gender, enabling work and childcare to be balanced. Since working moms and dads can use these flexibly without gender distinction and adjust according to the childcare lifecycle, experts emphasize the need to actively utilize them. Representative examples include reduced working hours during childcare, staggered working hours, flexible work schedules, and securing flexibility in work location through telecommuting and remote work.

The adoption rate of flexible work in South Korea is not very high. According to Statistics Korea, 15.6% of all wage workers used flexible work arrangements as of August last year. Among them, staggered working hours accounted for 33.0%, flexible work schedules 31.2%, and selective working hours 26.5%. Although these figures do not reflect whether workers have children, they indicate that flexible work is not yet a mainstream working style.

Telecommuting and remote work, which expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, have rapidly decreased. The proportion of workers using telecommuting and remote work was only 4.3% in 2019 before the pandemic, surged to 32.3% in 2021, but dropped to 19.9% last year.

[Image source=Pixabay]

Among flexible work arrangements, reduced working hours benefits for workers with children under 12 are still heavily skewed toward women. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, in 2022, 9 out of 10 recipients of reduced working hours benefits during childcare were women, with men accounting for only one, showing a severe gender gap.

However, the proportion of workers in South Korea who desire flexible work is increasing. According to Statistics Korea's 'Supplementary Survey on Employment Forms of the Economically Active Population,' 47% of workers whose companies have not introduced flexible work systems last year expressed a desire for them. About 80% of these desired systems that provide time flexibility. Telecommuting and remote work had the lowest response rate at 20% among the five types of flexible work presented.

Men's Paternity Leave Has Increased Significantly, But...

Expanding men's paternity leave is a representative family-friendly policy that companies can implement alongside flexible work arrangements during childcare periods. It breaks the custom that "childcare is women's responsibility," prevents women from quitting jobs due to childcare, fosters shared parenting and empathy between parents, and simultaneously secures psychological stability.

Compared to the past, the social atmosphere encouraging men to take paternity leave has spread, but it remains far behind women. The number of men taking paternity leave in South Korea exceeded 50,000 for the first time in 2022. The proportion of men among all paternity leave takers was 27.1%, a tenfold increase since the first year of data collection in 2010, but still significantly lower than women at 72.9%.

South Korea's men's paternity leave system, along with Japan's, is considered one of the best among OECD member countries with paid paternity leave. As of 2022, the paid paternity leave duration for men in both countries was 52 weeks, the longest among OECD members. Compared to countries where men's paternity leave is relatively freely used, such as Iceland (20 weeks) and Norway (15 weeks), South Korea's duration is two to three times longer. However, when looking at the number of men taking paternity leave per 100 births, South Korea had 14.1 men in 2021, Japan 8.4, far below Iceland (80.1) and Norway (106.8).

"You rested well?"?In Such Companies, Having Children Is Difficult

On the ground, working moms and working dads agree that what is needed to balance work and parenting is the formation of a family-friendly environment and culture within companies. Although various systems such as flexible work for pregnancy and childcare and men's paternity leave are in place, it is difficult to actually use them due to the workplace atmosphere.

A working dad who took one year of paternity leave recently said at a forum, "After taking one year off, the phrase I heard most was 'Did you rest well?'" On 'Blind,' an anonymous app for office workers, posts asking about company atmosphere and expressing fear of disadvantages when using flexible work or paternity leave due to childcare concerns continue to appear.

Company executives are also aware of this situation. According to a survey conducted last year by the Korea International Trade Association targeting about 8,000 member company CEOs or HR executives, relatively long-established systems such as maternity and paternity leave had high utilization rates, but flexible work systems like reduced working hours had low utilization. Reasons for not fully using these systems varied individually but were mainly cited as 'workplace atmosphere or culture' and 'difficulty in hiring replacement workers.'

The concentration of system usage in large companies is also cited as a challenge. Many parents who took paternity leave were employees of large companies with 300 or more employees. In 2022, 70.1% of men and 60% of women who took paternity leave belonged to large companies. The utilization rate of flexible work in companies with 300 or more employees accounted for 40% of the total, showing higher rates in larger workplaces. There are calls for policy and institutional support to address difficulties faced by small and medium-sized enterprises, such as hiring replacement workers and costs.