Last Year, 42,000 Men Took Parental Leave... Six Out of Ten Households Are Dual-Income

Steady Rise in Dual-Income Households and Female Managers

Last year, for the first time ever, the number of men who received parental leave benefits exceeded 40,000. The proportion of dual-income households and female managers also continued to rise.

Image unrelated to the article about childcare. Pixabay

According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family's "2025 Men and Women's Lives in Statistics" released on September 2, the total number of people who received parental leave benefits last year was 133,000. Among them, men accounted for 42,000 (31.6%), surpassing the 40,000 mark for the first time. This figure is nearly ten times higher than a decade ago (4,872).

The number of recipients of reduced working hours benefits during the childcare period also reached 27,000, with the number of women increasing by 12.4 times and men by 19.2 times compared to ten years ago. For both men and women, employees at large companies with more than 300 employees made up the largest proportion.

Steady Increase in Dual-Income Households and Female Managers

The number of dual-income households also continued to grow. In 2024, the proportion of dual-income households with children under 18 was 58.5%, up 11.3 percentage points from 47.2% in 2015. Notably, the proportion of dual-income households with children aged six or younger surged to 53.2%, a sharp increase of 15.1 percentage points over ten years. By age group, dual-income households were most common among those in their 30s (61.5%), followed by those in their 40s (59.2%) and 50s (58.0%).

The proportion of female managers has also been steadily rising. Last year, women accounted for 22.5% of all managers, up 3.1 percentage points from 19.4% in 2015. In particular, the proportion of female managers in public institutions jumped from 15.9% to 25.4% over the same period.

Among national civil servants at grade 4 or above, the proportion of women was 26.3%, an increase of 14.2 percentage points from 12.1% in 2015. For local government officials at grade 5 or above, the proportion of women reached 34.6%, up 23.0 percentage points from 11.6% ten years ago.

Significant changes were also observed in employment indicators. Last year, the employment rate for women aged 15 to 64 was 62.1%, up 6.4 percentage points from 2015. In particular, the employment rate for women in their early 30s rose by 13.9 percentage points to 73.5%. The career interruption rate among married women decreased from 21.7% to 15.9% during the same period.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family stated, "We will closely examine social phenomena closely linked to our daily lives, such as family structure, career interruption, and work-life balance, and will continue to develop and implement policies that can bring about real changes in people's lives."