Yonhap
Yonhap

A Bank of Korea official’s column appeared in the central bank's internal newsletter drew unexpected media attention Monday for suggesting that wives’ income may be linked to the nation’s persistently low birthrates.

Choi Yeon-kyo, a mid-level manager at the central bank's curreny policy department, in her guest column for the November-December issue of the bimonthly newsletter, said that when wives have higher income, husbands tend to take on more household chores and child care, which in turn may encourage the couple to have more children.

She wrote that her analysis of the 2019 daily time use survey by the Ministry of Data and Statistics found that while both husbands and wives are primarily influenced by working hours and the presence of young children, noticeable differences emerge in other factors.

For husbands, the number of children and their own wages were not significant, whereas their wives’ working hours and income levels were key determinants. For wives, by contrast, the number of children, their own wages, and working hours all played important roles.

“When a wife’s wage is high, husbands participate more in housework and child care,” she said. “When a husband leaves work a little earlier, the time a wife spends on housework is reduced.”

The official added that this pattern stems from the pressure men feel to work long hours in order to shoulder financial responsibilities, leaving wives to serve as the “last bastion” of domestic labor.

Choi noted that women in Korea earn roughly 70 percent of what men make, the largest gender pay gap among OECD member states. Narrowing this gap, she said, could increase the likelihood that husbands take on more domestic responsibilities, which in turn could help boost the country’s birthrate.

"In the past, higher wages for women were associated with increased labor-market participation and lower birthrates, but this relationship has weakened in recent years," Choi continued, adding that in high-income countries and in societies where women’s labor force participation is high, birthrates tend to be higher.

“Going forward, closing the wage gap and spreading workplace cultures that support husbands’ work-life balance could be key to changing the birthrate,” Choi said.


shinjh@heraldcorp.com