The country, which is experiencing its lowest ever birth rate, will extend parental leave, which was already a year long, for both women and men.
South Korea holds the world record for being the country with the lowest birth rate, as revealed by Statistics Korea (Kostat) in 2021. In an attempt to reverse the trend, South Korea’s Korean Labor Minister Lee Jeong-sik on Monday, January 9, announced an upcoming measure aimed at extending parental leave and thus encouraging couples to give birth. Both men and women will soon be allowed to stay with their newborn for eighteen months, or a year and a half, compared to one year now. When this law is passed, South Korea will become the country with the longest parental leave in the world (no date set yet).
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Although the country’s birth rate has only fallen in the past six years, this decision is therefore aimed at encouraging South Koreans to have more children, the magazine writes. Vice: . The birth rate in South Korea is 0.81 children per woman. That is, less than one birth per household. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2.1 children per Korean woman will be needed to maintain a stable population and, by extension, a workforce for society. For comparison, in 2020, the birth rate in Japan was 1.37 children per woman, and in the same year in the United States – 1.66 children.
Work culture
According to the country’s top leaders, the rising cost of living and the work culture are creating an imbalance between professional and personal life, prompting couples not to engage in family life. However, while many rely on the extension of parental leave as a guarantee of relaxation and therefore childbirth, South Korea has been investing in this direction for several years without real results. Over sixteen years, nearly $200 billion has already been invested in parental leave and child care organizations. Observation: the country of about 52 million people is currently the fastest aging.
Will this new remedy bear the expected fruits this time? Nothing less is certain. However, there is no longer any need to prove that parental leave reduces child-rearing stress, improves gender equality within households, and thus improves the mental health of couples. Therefore, there is no doubt that its extension will benefit the population.
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Source: Le Figaro
