South Korean employees will be eligible to apply for up to three years of shared parental leave beginning on Feb. 23, in the latest move to encourage workers to give birth and help overcome the nation's population crisis.
At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, presided over by acting President and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, the government approved enforcement decrees allowing employees to conditionally take up to 1 1/2 years of parental leave, increased from the current one year. For dual-income households, this extends to a combined total of three years when both parents utilize the leave.
A couple would be eligible to extend their leave for a combined three years of shared parental leave if each parent has already used at least three months of leave. A single parent or the parent of a child with disabilities could also take 1 1/2 years of paid leave.
A parent using the entire 18 months of parental leave would be paid 32.7 million won ($22,500) throughout the period , with an applicant being paid up to 2.5 million won monthly for the first three months and 2 million won monthly for the next three months. For the rest of the parental leave, employees would receive 1.6 million won per month.
Currently, workers on parental leave receive a maximum of 1.5 million won per month.
Also, with the introduction of enforcement decrees, an employee's 18-month parental leave could be split into four sections to be used at any time up until the child is 8 years old. Before the introduction, an employee was eligible to divide their 12 months of leave into three parts.
Shorter working weeks will also be applied to a wider range of child-rearing parents. Starting on Feb. 23, a parent with a 12-year-old child or younger may shorten their workweek to 35 hours for up to three years -- in a country that legally has a 52-hour workweek in place -- as the new policy seeks to reimburse for unused parental leave of up to a year with two extra years of shorter working hours.
The Cabinet also approved the revision of an enforcement decree related to the Employment Insurance Act, which ensures a minimum of 10 days leave for miscarriage or stillbirth for an expecting mother who was 15 weeks pregnant or less. The revised Labor Standards Act will allow an aspiring mother to take up to six days of fertility treatment leave, including two days paid, per year from the current three days.
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