The majority of fathers in Seoul have not used their paternity leave benefits, showing little improvement in sharing the child care burden over the past decade, a report showed.
  

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s gender report, only 3.2 percent of Seoul fathers used paternity leave benefits, although over 70 percent of them were familiar with childbirth and paternity leave schemes. This shows only a 1.9 percentage point rise in fathers using benefits compared to 2004.

The city’s annual gender report was based on experts’ analysis of several public surveys and administrative statistics.

The report also showed that women took on much more of the household chores burden, as they spent some three hours a day on child care and housework, while men spent only 40 minutes a day.

The income disparity was also apparent by gender. Men earned about 2.9 million won ($2,410) a month, whereas women earned 1.8 million won a month.

Among them, about 58 percent of women aged 65 or older made less than 1 million won a month, which is nearly double the proportion of male counterparts.

More than 70 percent of women and 63 percent of men picked child care as the most challenging factor for finding jobs for women.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)