'Idolbom' Lost for Years... Both Administration and Legislation Paralyzed [Swamp of Care]

③ Issues with Childcare: What Is the Problem?
Field Experts Say "The System Design Is Fundamentally Flawed"
Stalled Amid Government and National Assembly Avoiding Responsibility

Editor's NoteLast year, the number of households applying for childcare services reached 120,000, but the number of childcare workers remained in the 20,000 range. To find a solution to the 'care gap' issue, Seoul City launched a pilot project introducing 'foreign domestic workers,' but there is still a long way to go before a smooth transition. This series of three articles diagnoses the fundamental causes and solutions related to the childcare issues facing Korean society.

"Even when there are people willing to work as caregivers at local childcare centers, they cannot all be hired."

Baek Young-sook (67), a 12-year veteran caregiver working at the Namdong-gu Childcare Center in Incheon, said in a phone interview with Asia Economy on the 28th, "Budgets are allocated based on the total number of eligible households, but there are no measures in place on the ground," expressing this concern.

Childcare facility. The photo is not related to the article. [Photo by Asia Economy DB]

Childcare workers on the ground lamented that public childcare caregivers are not being properly managed. Although the childcare budget increases every year, there is no detailed plan for the operating expenses used by each local public childcare center, causing a mismatch in budget execution. Baek said, "In Incheon, about 300 people have been trained, but only about 120 caregivers have been hired on site."

There was also criticism that regional demand is not reflected in the budget allocation process. Lee Ju-nam, Vice Chairman of the Public Solidarity Labor Union of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said, "In Gangnam-gu, Seoul, there are about 200 households waiting after applying for childcare, but a similar amount of budget is uniformly allocated as in other regions," adding, "In Incheon, about 300 people have been trained, but only about 120 caregivers have been hired on site."

Public Childcare: Years of 'Mismatch'

Despite government budget input, public childcare caregivers are not being trained in proportion to demand. According to data submitted by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to Song Eon-seok, a member of the People Power Party, the number of households applying for public childcare services increased about 1.84 times from 66,694 in 2020 to 122,729 last year. However, the number of caregivers providing services only increased by 14% to 28,071 last year. As a result, the waiting time from application to receiving childcare services was found to have increased to 33 days last year.

Within the industry, there are even claims that "the public childcare system itself was flawed from the design stage." To address issues with regional management centers, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family amended the Childcare Support Act in 2022 to allow metropolitan support centers to manage recruitment, labor contracts, and other tasks. However, the 2023 National Assembly Women and Family Committee’s audit review report pointed out that "metropolitan support centers are not operating according to the current law, failing to perform tasks such as caregiver recruitment, labor contract execution, and duty management."

[Source: Ministry of Gender Equality and Family]

Poor working conditions for caregivers are also cited as a reason for the insufficient supply. In February, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions conducted a wage survey of 1,001 care workers engaged in government-provided care services, finding that as of December last year, the average monthly salary was 1,719,000 KRW. Respondents were found to receive almost no benefits or reimbursements such as meal allowances, transportation costs, communication fees, or vacation pay, aside from holiday bonuses.

Government and National Assembly: "At Least a Private Company Registration System"

Lee In-seok, Chair of the National Assembly's Committee on Women and Family, is striking the gavel at the plenary meeting of the Committee on Women and Family held at the National Assembly on the 23rd. At the meeting, the "Deepfake Sexual Crime Prevention Act," including amendments to the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Abuse (Youth Sexual Protection Act) and the Act on the Prevention of Sexual Violence and Protection of Victims (Sexual Violence Prevention Act), was passed. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

However, the government and the National Assembly have effectively taken no action to improve the public childcare system. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family points to legislation, while the National Assembly blames the ministry’s lack of management. As an alternative, a system granting national certification to childcare helpers employed by private companies has been proposed. With immediate problem-solving becoming difficult, both sides emphasize the need to establish a national certification system for childcare helpers working in private companies, which operate separately from public childcare.

The problem is that legislative progress has not been made. Since the 20th National Assembly Women and Family Committee, multiple amendments to the Childcare Support Act including the introduction of a private childcare institution registration system and a national certification system for childcare have been proposed, but they were not discussed in committee and were discarded due to being overshadowed by other bills.

In the 22nd National Assembly Women and Family Committee, bills were introduced for the adoption of a national certification system (led by Kim Jeong-jae of the People Power Party), institution registration, and criminal background checks (led by Kim Han-gyu of the Democratic Party), but the Childcare Support Act has yet to be discussed. A Ministry of Gender Equality and Family official said, "Strengthening publicness is obviously necessary, but realistically, it is difficult to meet the demand. We agree that it is time to establish a management system for private institutions as well."