Fathers on parental leave in Korea approach 40 percent of total recipients

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Fathers on parental leave in Korea approach 40 percent of total recipients

Published: 24 Sep. 2025, 09:44 Updated: 24 Sep. 2025, 17:05

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Swedish fathers who take parental leave to care for their children at home are often referred to as latte papas. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Fathers on parental leave are quickly becoming a common sight in Korea — among parental leave recipients, the share of men has surged this year, nearing 40 percent.

Experts and the government say the rise in parental leave benefits is a key factor behind the trend. But concerns are growing over how sustainable the trend is, as the financial resources used to fund such benefits are quickly drying up.

According to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor obtained by Rep. Kim So-hee of the People Power Party, men accounted for 36.4 percent of parental leave recipients in the first half of this year — the highest proportion ever.

That’s nearly a 12 percentage point increase from the annual figure of 24.5 percent in 2020. While the share of men has risen by 1 to 2 percentage points annually over the past five years, it climbed much faster this year, jumping from 31.6 percent in 2024 to 36.4 percent in just the first six months this year. The total number of men on leave also rose sharply — as of July this year, 40,412 men had taken parental leave, a 54.3 percent increase from 26,195 during the same month last year.

The ministry credited this spike to the expansion of parental leave benefits. One key policy is the "Parental Leave Together" program introduced last year, which allows both parents to take leave at the same time while receiving between 3 million and 4.5 million won ($2,100 to $3,200) monthly during the first three to six months. In addition, the standard monthly parental leave benefit was raised from 1.5 million won to 2.5 million won this year.

“A larger share of household income still comes from husbands’ earnings,” a Labor Ministry official said. “The increased benefits likely had a bigger impact for fathers than for mothers deciding to take leave.”

Park Ji-woong, a 36-year-old Lotte employee in his ninth year with the company, decorates a Christmas tree at home with his son in late 2022 while on paternity leave. Lotte was the first company in Korea to implement mandatory paternity leave. [LOTTE]

Heo Min-sook, a legislative researcher at the National Assembly Research Service, said the policy is helping to shift longstanding gender norms.

“Due to Korea’s significant gender wage gap, women — who tend to earn less — were more likely to take parental leave,” Heo said. “But the rise in benefits seems to be changing that dynamic.”

To maintain this momentum, experts are calling for policy adjustments such as increasing funding and making the system more flexible.

Spending on maternity and parental benefits jumped from 2.6 trillion won in 2024 to 4 trillion won this year — a 56.3 percent increase. But the fund that pays for these benefits — the unemployment insurance account within the employment insurance system — is already operating at a deficit.

Although the government supplements the fund with general tax revenue, the pace of expenditure is outstripping those contributions. The government's transfer from general revenues rose from 400 billion won last year to 550 billion won this year, but its share of total spending dropped from 15.5 percent in 2024 to 13.7 percent this year.

Given the limited fiscal room, experts suggest making the system more flexible. One idea is to allow parental leave to be taken in smaller blocks. Currently, Korean fathers can only divide their leave into a maximum of two separate periods, a restriction considered more rigid than in other developed countries.

In the Netherlands, workers are guaranteed leave equivalent to 26 times their weekly working hours, which can be used in up to six one-month blocks. Sweden allows three splits across 240 days of leave, while Poland permits five splits over a 41-week period.

Groups of latte papas push strollers together at Skansen, an open-air zoo in Stockholm, Sweden, on Aug. 30, 2023. [JOONGANG ILBO]

“International cases show that flexibility is just as important as benefit levels in encouraging men to take parental leave,” Heo said. “Taking a long stretch of time off work can be psychologically and practically difficult for many men. If they could divide it into smaller chunks, more might be willing to participate.”

Given no other choice, most men in Korea opt for long-term leave. In the first half of this year, 35.9 percent of male recipients — 12,445 people — took parental leave for at least 12 months.

“Encouraging men to take parental leave is a core policy response to the country’s declining birthrate,” Rep. Kim So-hee said. “To support this shift, the government must ensure stable funding through expanded general revenue transfers and pursue flexible policies that don't necessarily require large spending increases.”

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 YEON-JOO [[email protected]]