Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs Report
"Measures to Improve Blind Spots in the Parental Leave System"
Although the use of "paternal parental leave" has increased, it was found that more than half of its users are employed by large companies.
According to the "Measures to Improve Blind Spots in the Parental Leave System" report by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs released on June 8, 56.7% of male net recipients of parental leave benefits in 2023 were employed by large companies, exceeding the 43.3% employed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by more than 10 percentage points. In particular, while the proportion of men among net recipients increased by 10.8 percentage points from 2018 to 2023, the rate of increase in the male proportion was lower in SMEs (8.4 percentage points) compared to large companies (14.4 percentage points).
Recipients of parental leave benefits are divided into net recipients, who received parental leave benefits in a given year with duplicate individuals removed, and first-time recipients, who received parental leave benefits for the first time in that year.
As of 2023, there were 295,697 net recipients of parental leave benefits and 126,069 first-time recipients. Among the net recipients, 224,126 were women (75.8%) and 71,571 were men (24.2%).
Classifying net recipients by company size, 162,891 (55.1%) were employed by SMEs with fewer than 300 employees, while 132,806 (44.9%) were employed by large companies with 300 or more employees.
The research team explained that the proportion of net recipients employed by SMEs is 29.4 percentage points lower than the proportion of young workers employed by SMEs (84.5%).
This indicates that the performance of parental leave benefit uptake is low, considering the proportion of workers employed by SMEs. The research team stated, "Although the proportion of men among net recipients of parental leave benefits has increased, more than half of them are still employed by large companies," and added, "It is necessary to seek ways to promote parental leave among men working at SMEs."
Meanwhile, the so-called "Dad Bonus" benefit, which was temporarily provided to the second parent taking parental leave, will be raised to the same level as the standard parental leave benefit. The Dad Bonus is a special measure that provides higher parental leave benefits for the first three months to the second parent taking leave.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor had previously announced a partial amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act, open for public comment until July 7. The main point is to raise the Dad Bonus benefit, introduced in 2022 to promote shared caregiving, to the same level as the standard parental leave benefit.
With this amendment, those who used part of their leave in 2022 and use the remaining period this year will be able to receive the increased benefit.
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