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Lee calls for new measures to promote paternity leave

Published: 10 Mar. 2026, 19:59

President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the Blue House in central Seoul on March 10. [YONHAP]

President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday called for new measures to promote paternity leave, pointing out that men still feel discouraged and end up not taking it.

Lee raised the issue during the ninth Cabinet meeting at the Blue House in central Seoul and instructed Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon to review ways to encourage more men to take parental leave.

“Korea still has a culture where people say, ‘Why would men take child care leave?’ So many men feel discouraged and end up not taking it,” Lee said.

Lee asked Kim whether the government had previously discussed introducing a system that would disadvantage workers who do not take paternity leave.

“I think we once talked about creating a system where those who do not use it face some kind of disadvantage, not exactly a penalty but something similar,” Lee said. “In some European countries, men taking child care leave is almost the norm.”

Kim responded that the share of men taking child care leave has increased in recent years.

A child heads to a daycare center in Seoul on Feb. 11, 2025. [NEWS1]

“As the president mentioned, the proportion of men taking child care leave used to be low,” Kim said. “This year the work–life balance policy pushed the total number of child care leave users above 340,000. Among them, the number of men taking child care leave increased 60 percent.

“When compared to the total number, the proportion remains below 20 percent,” Kim said, when asked the whole percentage by Lee.
Lee noted that men still account for a relatively small share of child care leave users.

“Even if it increased to 60 percent, that still means men account for only about 20 percent overall,” Lee said. “Please review separate measures to encourage paternity leave.”

Minister of Gender Equality and Family Won Min-kyong also raised the issue during the meeting.

“The share of child care leave has increased across many ministries, but we still receive reports that men in some ministries face difficulties when trying to take child care leave,” Won said. “I hope ministers will take this Cabinet meeting as an opportunity to review the share of male and female child care leave within their ministries.”

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 CHO MUN-GYU [[email protected]]