Gwangju City Councilor Park Mijeong: "Leading Model for Solving Low Birthrate"
Contributing to Workplace Employment Retention and Alleviating Worker Care Difficulties
Gwangju City’s ‘10 AM Start Time for Elementary School Parents’ policy, which has been implemented nationwide for the first time since last year, is being recognized as a leading model for addressing the low birthrate issue.
On the 7th, Park Mijeong, a member of the Gwangju City Council (Democratic Party, Dong-gu 2), stated during an administrative audit of the Gwangju City Women and Family Bureau, “The 10 AM start time policy for elementary school parents has gained positive public response as word spreads that parents can send their children to school and then start work at a more relaxed pace,” adding, “The budget has been exhausted early, and other local governments are benchmarking this policy.”
Looking at the annual implementation results, the number of cases increased from 99 in 2022 to 123 in 2023, and 300 this year. In 2024, through the first supplementary budget, the project target was doubled from 150 to 300 cases, and the policy was expanded from first graders to all elementary school grades.
The ‘10 AM Start Time for Elementary School Parents’ is a work-family balance support program that allows parents working at small and medium-sized enterprises in the Gwangju area to reduce their working hours by one hour for up to two months without a wage cut.
Councilor Park praised the policy, saying, “The 10 AM start time can be used for each child even in families with multiple children, resulting in high satisfaction among parents, and it places little burden on employers and coworkers,” adding, “It is a niche policy that helps maintain employment and alleviates childcare difficulties for workers.”
She further added, “There is a need for policy selection and concentration to create an environment where children can be born and raised.”
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