[Initial Insight] Would You Have More Children If Given Money and a House?

"South Korea is completely doomed. Wow!"

Joan Williams, Professor Emerita at California State University College of Law, who has spent her life researching women's issues, labor, and class, lamented this way on EBS's documentary "K-Population Project: Ultra-Low Birthrate" last August upon learning that South Korea's total fertility rate was 0.78. The scene where she clutched her head, saying she had never heard of such a low birthrate, quickly became a meme and spread rapidly.

In December last year, The New York Times (NYT) published a column titled "Is South Korea Disappearing?" stating that South Korea's population decline surpasses the scale of the 14th-century European Black Death population decrease.

In response to the overwhelming voices of concern, the government and local governments nationwide are rolling out various birth promotion policies.

At the end of last year, Incheon City announced that every child born in Incheon would receive 100 million won until they turn 18, Chungbuk Yeongdong County announced 124.3 million won, and Gyeongnam Geochang County announced 110 million won per child. Although it is unclear how the funds will be secured, 100 million won is the baseline.

Private companies have also joined in. On the 5th, Booyoung Group announced at its New Year's ceremony that it would pay 100 million won per child, giving a total of 7 billion won in cash to 70 employees' children born after 2021, attracting attention. For a third child, employees can choose between three times the birth incentive or a permanent rental house of national housing size. Whether money or housing, financial support is seen as the solution to low birthrate, aligning with the government's perspective.

However, such solutions have limitations. According to the "2023 Low Birthrate Awareness Survey" released by the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy (Low Birthrate Committee) last November, the most necessary factor to solve low birthrate was "expansion of work-family balance systems," with 25.3% of respondents choosing this. Infrastructure development such as care and medical services (18.2%), job and income expansion (16.1%), and raising public awareness (14.6%) followed, while only 9.5% responded that cash support was necessary.

The solution proposed in Asia Economy's annual project "K-Population Strategy - Gender Equality is the Answer" aligns with the Low Birthrate Committee's survey results.

Through examples such as companies where parental leave is easier to use, companies with high female parental leave return rates, companies with workplace daycare centers, and Gapyeong County in Gyeonggi Province with Namiseom daycare centers operating even on weekends, the importance of "institutional establishment for work-family balance" was repeatedly emphasized.

Professor Cho Young-tae of Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health also advised regarding the K-Population Strategy solution, "Rather than expecting immediate visible results, it should be approached from a long-term perspective."

In this regard, Gwangju City's policy is noteworthy. On the 6th, it announced that it would expand the scope of the incentive program for small and medium-sized enterprises adopting the 10 a.m. start time, which was previously targeted only at parents of first graders this year, to all elementary school grades.

Parents praised, "It greatly helped children who entered elementary school last year to adapt. It was really good to be able to safely take the child to school without rushing in the morning." Although the start time was delayed by only one hour, it became a clear solution considering work-family balance.

Companies above a certain size should be required to install workplace daycare centers, and employees should be able to take parental leave without worrying about not being able to return or increasing colleagues' workload. Financial support during parental leave should be institutionally guaranteed so that employees do not worry about money. The problem of carrying a sick child from hospital to hospital, enduring hours of waiting for pediatric open runs, must be solved first. Saying "We'll give you 100 million won, so have children" is out of the question.