Ministry of Personnel Management proposes amendments to expand parental leave policy
Published: 18 Sep. 2025, 16:31
![A family of parents and children is seen on a street in Seoul on Feb. 23. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/09/18/3de749af-21a6-43d4-8ce1-80968eb0e0b5.jpg)
A family of parents and children is seen on a street in Seoul on Feb. 23. [YONHAP]
Civil servants in Korea may soon be able to take parental leave for children up to age 12, or through sixth grade in elementary school.
The Ministry of Personnel Management announced on Thursday that it plans to propose revisions to the Government Employees Act next month to extend the eligibility age for parental leave from the current limit of under eight years old, or through second grade, to the current standard.
“Since parental leave is currently limited to parents of children under eight, it does not fully meet broader child care needs,” an official from the ministry’s Human Resources Innovation Division explained.
The ministry expects the revision will allow parents to focus solely on child care when needed and return to work more engaged. It also hopes the measure will improve public service quality by fostering a “family-friendly culture” in the civil service at a time when government jobs are losing popularity.
The timeline for implementation has not been finalized. After the public notice period, the ministry plans to submit the amendment as a government bill within the year. It must then pass deliberation in the National Assembly.
The eligibility age for parental leave in the civil service has been gradually expanded since the Government Employees Act first introduced the system in 1994, when it was limited to children under the age of one. Multiple reforms since then have extended the cutoff to the current standard of under eight years old.
The duration of leave has also been expanded from one year per child to the current maximum of three years. A total of 56.1 percent of eligible central government employees — 58,921 out of 104,937 — took parental leave last year, according to the ministry.
![Children are seen playing in a fountain in a park in Gwangju on July 2. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/09/18/bb47865b-0053-45dd-ba8a-747525ceab88.jpg)
Children are seen playing in a fountain in a park in Gwangju on July 2. [YONHAP]
“Civil servants need an environment where they can care for their children without worry in order to work energetically,” said Minister of Personnel Management Tschoe Dong-seok.
Parental leave is also becoming more common in the private sector. Data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor shows that 132,535 people took parental leave last year, up 6,527, or 5.2 percent, from 126,008 in 2023.
Notably, 41,829 men, or 31.6 percent of the total, took leave — the first time the male share has surpassed 30 percent. The number of men taking parental leave has increased nearly ninefold over the past decade.
This has raised interest among private sector employees in whether the eligibility age for parental leave will also be extended to 12 years old. A related bill has already been introduced. In February, Democratic Party Rep. Seo Young-seok proposed the “Work-Family Balance Act” amendment, which is now under committee review.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM MIN-WOOK [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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