"Let's Extend Retirement Age for Parents Who Give Birth," Radical Proposal by a Senior Official at the Bank of Korea

"Concerns About Childbirth Due to Parenting Burden After Retirement"
"Parents Face Retirement Age Before Children's Financial Independence"

A proposal to extend the retirement age for employees who have children has emerged within the Bank of Korea. This was revealed through a contribution article by Lee Jae-hwa, Deputy Director of the Human Resources Management Department, published in the February issue of the monthly internal newsletter 'Haneun News.'

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In his article titled "Childbirth and Retirement Extension: Parents Retire Early, but Children Have a Long Way to Go," Deputy Director Lee presented the idea of "extending the retirement age for parents" as a suggestion for those who are worried about whether to have more children due to the burdens of childbirth, childcare, and concerns about the future. He cited cases where both parents are in their late 40s with a second child, and a case of a father (46) and mother (39) with a one-year-old child, stating that such cases are not extreme. He pointed out the social trend of increasing age at employment and childbirth.

Deputy Director Lee identified "the biggest concern when planning childbirth was the burden of childcare after retirement," and analyzed that "considering that the actual retirement age is far below 60, parents reach retirement before their children become financially independent. At the time when they have to worry about their own livelihood after retirement, they also have to worry about their children's future."

He also pointed out that "while companies are the ultimate demanders of manpower, they have always tended to stay away from debates on how to increase the birth rate," and questioned, "Shouldn't companies, as well as the state and individuals, participate in discussions related to low birth rates, as Booyoung Group recently announced a groundbreaking childbirth support program?"

As the low birth rate phenomenon has prolonged, the total fertility rate in the fourth quarter of last year recorded the lowest ever at the 0.6 level. Recently, Booyoung Group attracted significant attention by generously donating 1 billion KRW each to about 70 children of its employees, totaling 7 billion KRW in childbirth incentives. Booyoung Group Chairman Lee Jung-geun has been providing 1 billion KRW childbirth incentives to employees who gave birth since 2021. For the third child, a permanent rental house free from tax burdens is also provided.

However, this is a special case. According to the National Tax Service's tax statistics, the average amount of childbirth and childcare allowances paid by companies per person in 2022 was only about half of the tax-exempt limit. It was less than 100,000 KRW per month.

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