8 out of 10 Gwangju Citizens Support the Introduction of the Household Allowance System

Eight out of ten Gwangju citizens support the introduction of the household allowance system, prompting Gwangju City to actively discuss the implementation of the household allowance system.

Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Kang Ki-jung) announced on the 10th that, according to the ‘Perception and Actual Condition Survey on Housework,’ 80.5% of Gwangju citizens responded in favor of introducing the household allowance system. Opposition accounted for 7.5%, and the remaining 12.1% answered that they did not know.

원본보기 아이콘

The city conducted the survey from the 6th to the 17th of last month, targeting 1,045 Gwangju citizens aged between 19 and under 64.

Most Gwangju citizens recognize routine household chores and caregiving/child-rearing activities carried out at home as housework, and 97.2% positively perceive housework as essential for maintaining and reproducing family and society.

The majority opinion was to support the household allowance for ‘full-time homemakers with a median income of 100% or less’ (72.6%), with the amount suggested to be ‘up to 100,000 KRW per month’ (59.2%).

In particular, over 90% of Gwangju citizens cited ‘revitalization of the local economy’ and ‘help for household finances’ as expected effects of introducing the household allowance system.

According to the housework actual condition survey, Gwangju citizens spend an average of 2.8 hours on housework on weekdays and an average of 4 hours on weekends and holidays.

Within families, the division of housework was 56.6% by women and 24.3% by men, showing that women are responsible for more than twice as much housework as men. Housework mainly consisted of food preparation (94.8%), cleaning and organizing (94.6%), and clothing care and shoe polishing (93.0%).

Following the perception survey, the city held a policy discussion forum titled ‘Gwangju-type Household Allowance for a Happy Life’ at the Gwangju Women and Family Foundation Book Cafe on the 5th.

The forum was chaired by Professor Kim Yang-hyun of Chonnam National University (Department of Philosophy), with presentations by Lim Hyung-moon, CEO of Poll Insight, and Kim Kyung-rye, CEO of the Gwangju Women and Family Foundation, on ‘Implications of the Citizen Perception Survey Results on Household Allowance’ and ‘Analysis of Social Security Systems and Policy Status in Other Cities and Provinces.’

Following this, Park Mi-jung, Gwangju City Council member; Ahn Kyung-joo, former director of the Jeonnam Women and Family Foundation; Kim Ran-hee, former representative of the Gwangju Jeonnam Women’s Organizations Federation; and Shin Seok-gi, deputy director of the Gwangju Sustainable Development Council, participated as discussants, actively debating the ‘Issues in Introducing the Household Allowance System,’ a pledge of the 8th local government, and ‘Ways to Enhance Citizen Acceptance.’

Kim Young-seon, head of the Gwangju Strategy Promotion Team, said, “The high awareness and expectations of Gwangju citizens regarding housework and the household allowance are very positive. We will continue to gather citizen opinions in various forms and enhance social consensus and citizen satisfaction through meticulous and solid system design.”

Meanwhile, this perception survey was commissioned by Gwangju City to Poll Insight Co., Ltd., a professional public opinion research agency, and was conducted through face-to-face interviews and online surveys with proportional sampling by gender, age, and region. The sampling error is 95%, with a confidence level of ±3.02%p.

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