Last Year, 200,000 Parental Leave Takers Hit Record High... 70% of Dad Leave Takers Are from Large Corporations

Last year, the number of people taking parental leave reached 200,000. However, 7 out of 10 male parental leave takers belonged to companies with 300 or more employees, indicating that the concentration of parental leave usage in large corporations remains strong.

According to the 2022 Parental Leave Statistics (provisional) released by Statistics Korea, the number of people who took parental leave for children aged 8 or younger or in the second grade of elementary school last year was 199,976, an increase of 14.2% compared to the previous year. This is the highest number since the related statistics began in 2011, and the growth rate is the second highest since 2011 (28.7%). Lee Jeong-hoon, an officer at the Social Statistics Planning Division of Statistics Korea, said, "After the end of COVID-19, as remote work ended, the number of parental leave applicants relatively increased, and it seems that the government's expanded benefits from this year have been reflected."

Among parental leave takers, 27.1% were male. The number of male parental leave takers was 54,240, a 28.5% increase from the previous year, while female parental leave takers numbered 145,736, a 9.6% increase. In particular, the proportion of males has been increasing every year, rising by 3.0 percentage points from 24.1% the previous year.

Looking at parental leave takers by company size, 70.1% of males and 60.0% of females were employees of large corporations with 300 or more employees. The proportions for companies with 5?49 employees (up 0.4 percentage points), 4 or fewer employees (up 0.4 percentage points), and 50?299 employees (up 0.3 percentage points) slightly increased, but the concentration in large corporations remained.

On the 15th, expectant parents attending the '42nd BEFE Baby Fair' held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, are looking at childcare products. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Among parents of newborns last year, 87,092 used parental leave, an increase of 12.5% over one year. The parental leave usage rate increased by 4.3 percentage points to 30.2%, and the number of parental leave takers per 100 newborns increased by 5.2 to 35.0, respectively.

By age group, the paternal parental leave usage rate among newborn fathers last year was highest among those under 30 at 7.3%, and lowest among those 40 and older at 5.7%. Compared to the previous year, all age groups saw increases: under 30 (up 3.3 percentage points), 35?39 (up 2.8 percentage points), 30?34 (up 2.8 percentage points), and 40 and older (up 2.1 percentage points). The maternal parental leave usage rate was highest among those under 30 at 73.5%, and lowest among those 40 and older at 57.3%.

During the same period, 49.7% of mothers who gave birth had jobs based on the date of childbirth, which is 9.0 percentage points lower than the 58.7% who had jobs 360 days before childbirth.

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