'Latte Papa' Exceeds 20,000 for the First Time... 1 in 5 Parental Leave Takers Is a 'Dad'

Total Number of Employees on Leave Exceeds 100,000 for the First Time
Government Makes All-Out Effort to Promote Shared Parenting Culture, Encouraging Paternity Leave for Men

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] Last year, the number of men taking parental leave exceeded 20,000 for the first time since the system was introduced, accounting for 21.2% of all leave takers. The government plans to improve the system to establish a co-parenting culture centered on the simultaneous parental leave system for couples, which President Moon Jae-in emphasized.

According to the "2019 Male Parental Leave Status" announced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 22nd, the number of men taking parental leave last year was 22,297, a 26.2% increase compared to the previous year (17,665). The total number of parental leave takers also increased by 6% to 105,165.

The proportion of men among all parental leave takers has been rapidly increasing every year. It was only 5.6% in 2015, then rose to 8.5% in 2016, 13.4% in 2017, 17.8% in 2018, and surpassed 20% for the first time last year at 21.2%. This means that one out of every five leave takers is male.

The "Dad Parental Leave Bonus System," which pays 100% of the ordinary wage (up to 2.5 million KRW) for the first three months of parental leave when taking a second parental leave for one child, was used by 9,796 people last year. Among them, 8,599 were men, accounting for 87.8%.

By company size, the proportion of workers in small and medium-sized enterprises (companies with fewer than 300 employees) among all parental leave takers has steadily increased to 54.5%. Among all company sizes, the increase rate of parental leave takers in "companies with fewer than 10 employees" was the fastest at 16.6% (from 15,292 in 2018 to 17,831 in 2019).

When dividing leave takers by gender and company size, female parental leave takers in companies with fewer than 300 employees increased by 5.4% to 47,499 compared to the previous year, while male parental leave takers surged by 36.6% to 9,794. The Ministry of Employment and Labor explained, "The smaller the company size, the higher the increase rate of male parental leave, indicating that male parental leave is rapidly spreading in small-scale workplaces." However, when looking at the total number of users, more than half (56.1%) of male parental leave takers work in companies with 300 or more employees, confirming that men still tend to take parental leave more often in larger companies.

Meanwhile, the number of users of reduced working hours during the childcare period in the private sector reached 5,660, a 48.2% increase compared to the previous year and double that of 2017. Among them, 742 were men, a 34.9% increase from the previous year. The reduced working hours during the childcare period system allows workers with children under the age of 8 to reduce their working hours by 1 to 5 hours per day. The government supports part of the wage reduction through the "Childcare Period Reduced Working Hours Allowance." In this system, 4,199 users are from small-scale companies with fewer than 300 employees, indicating active use centered on small companies.

The government plans to implement a system from next month that allows couples to take parental leave simultaneously. Additionally, it aims to increase parental leave pay for single-parent workers in the first half of this year and prepare measures to provide post-payment of parental leave pay when workers involuntarily leave their jobs (due to business closure, bankruptcy, etc.). Furthermore, to reduce the labor cost burden on employers who grant parental leave to workers, the government will pay 50% of the support fund every three months during the worker's parental leave period and increase the substitute labor cost support for small and medium-sized enterprises from 600,000 KRW to 800,000 KRW per month.

Song Hongseok, Director of the Integrated Employment Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, said, "For working parents to raise their children without career interruption, both social atmosphere and institutional support must be backed. We will always listen to voices from the field and improve related systems to ensure the continued increase in male parental leave and the spread of a co-parenting culture."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.