2024.08.06. The Fair Economy — Rep. Hwang Jeong-a, a member of the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, announced on the 6th that she had sponsored the "Working Parents (Mom and Dad) Support Package Act," which expands parental leave and child allowance, among other benefits.
The "Working Parents Support Package Act" consists of amendments to five laws: the Act on Equal Employment and Support for Work-Family Reconciliation, the Employment Insurance Act, the Labor Standards Act, the Child Allowance Act, and the Act on Special Cases Concerning Tax Restriction.
Hwang Jeong-a increased the parental leave period from the current 1 year to 2 years, and added a double credit for unused parental leave days, allowing them to be counted toward reduced working hours during the child-rearing period. Additionally, she expanded the eligible child age for parental leave and reduced working hours during child-rearing from 8 years old to 12 years old.
Spousal paternity leave was extended from the current 10 days to 30 days, with paid leave days expanded to up to 15 days. In addition, spousal paternity leave can now be split into up to three separate uses.
Furthermore, Hwang proposed increasing infertility treatment leave from the current three days per year to seven days per year, with the first three days paid, to support stable infertility treatment.
Rep. Hwang also actively devised measures to ease the financial burden caused by child-rearing. Benchmarking against overseas cases, she raised the age of children eligible for the child allowance from 7 or under to 18 or under, and increased the payment amount from 100,000 won to 200,000 won.
According to data from the National Assembly Research Service, major OECD countries including Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan provide child allowances to all children during their growth years. In Germany, for instance, 250 euros per month are paid up to age 18, while in Canada, depending on age, 583 dollars per month are paid for children under 6 and 492 dollars per month for those aged 6 to 17.
Rep. Hwang Jeong-a also announced that she is pursuing a value-added tax exemption for child-rearing products, including not only baby formula and diapers but also baby bottles, pacifiers, baby food and breast pumps.
Rep. Hwang Jeong-a said, "Achieving a balance between work and family is truly the key to easing the child-rearing burden on dual-income couples and solving the low birthrate problem. As the saying goes, it takes an entire village to raise a single child — overcoming the low birthrate crisis requires the nation's full attention and sufficient financial support. Starting with the Working Parents Support Package Act, I will work to build a society where people can raise children without worry, and take action to address the low birthrate crisis."
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