One in three parental leave users in South Korea is now a dad
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A total of 184,519 parents in South Korea took parental leave in 2025, and men accounted for 67,196 of them.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: UNSPLASH
SEOUL – More South Korean fathers took time off to care for their children in 2025 than ever before, with government data on Jan 28 showing that men accounted for one-third of all parents who used parental leave.
A total of 184,519 parents took parental leave in 2025, and men accounted for 67,196 of them, according to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor.
The number of male users rose 60.6 per cent from 2024, reaching an all-time high. Male participation has surged nearly fourteenfold, from 4,872 in 2015.
Overall, parental leave use also increased sharply from 132,695 a year earlier.
In South Korea, male employees are entitled to up to 18 months of parental leave to support childcare, along with up to 20 days of paid paternity leave after the birth of a child.
These rights are guaranteed under the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act, which aims to prevent women from bearing childcare responsibilities alone.
Reflecting the wider uptake of leave benefits, 339,530 people in 2025 used parental, maternity or paternity leave, or reduced working hours while caring for children. This represented a 33.1 per cent increase from 255,119 in 2024.
More small and mid-sized companies are also granting parental leave. A total of 110,903 leave takers worked at businesses with fewer than 300 employees, up from 77,994 the previous year.
Use of reduced working hour programmes rose as well. A total of 39,407 employees benefited from shorter hours, a 47.9 per cent increase from 26,638 a year earlier, and about 65.1 per cent of them worked for companies with fewer than 300 employees.
The ministry noted that these figures are provisional, compiled from monthly data, and that the final annual totals may change slightly.
The government has introduced additional measures to support working parents, including a “10am start programme” that allows employees to work one hour less with no cut in pay.
Employers who adopt the programme receive a state subsidy of 300,000 won (S$265) per participating employee. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
