OECD Says South Korea's Workplace Culture Still Blocks Progress on Birth Rate

More family support, but many parents still miss out

Fewer than half of mothers of children born in South Korea in 2024 qualified to apply for parental leave, despite decades of growth in government spending on families. The OECD identifies that gap between public support and parents' working lives as a central obstacle to addressing the country's exceptionally low birth rate.

In a report released on November 8, 2026, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said family policies had developed faster than labor market rules and workplace culture. Its assessment connects restricted access to leave, inflexible managers and unequal care responsibilities with the difficult choices facing prospective parents.

South Korea's total fertility rate rose from 0.72 children per woman in 2023 to 0.75 in 2024 and 0.80 in 2025. The OECD remained cautious about whether that improvement would last, pointing to working conditions that still force many women to choose between employment and family life.

The 174-page report examines fertility, employment and family policy together. Its central argument is that financial support has to reach people in workplaces where they can actually use it. A generous entitlement offers limited help to a parent who falls outside eligibility rules or fears losing a job after requesting leave.

Evidence from small workplaces gives that argument a concrete setting. In a survey of 1,000 employees, just 31.9% of respondents at workplaces with fewer than five employees said they could freely take parental leave, compared with 72% at workplaces employing at least 300 people.

Why spending totals tell two different stories

South Korea increased public spending on family support from 0.1% of gross domestic product in 1998 to 1.8% in 2023. GDP measures the value of goods and services produced in an economy, so this comparison shows how much of the country's economic resources went toward helping families.

The 2023 figure remained below the OECD average of 2.3%. Yet a different measure placed South Korea above the average: spending per child reached $19,400 in 2021, compared with $15,400 across the OECD, putting the country in 10th place among members.

Those dollar amounts were adjusted for differences in prices between countries, making them more useful for comparing what the money could buy. South Korea spent about $4,000 more per child, or 26% above the OECD average.

The two comparisons describe different things. Spending as a share of GDP measures the commitment relative to the economy, while spending per child divides support among the children receiving it. The figures also refer to different years. Together, they show why the policy debate reaches beyond how much money the government allocates to whether parents can obtain and use the support.

Eligibility is the first barrier to leave

Among parents of children born in 2024, 46% of mothers and 71% of fathers qualified to apply for parental leave. In practical terms, 54 out of every 100 mothers and 29 out of every 100 fathers were outside that eligibility group.

Employment insurance coverage helps determine access. Some women also leave their jobs before childbirth, putting them outside the employment arrangements through which leave support is delivered. The OECD therefore draws attention to a problem that begins before a parent asks a manager for time away.

Eligibility, permission and actual use are different stages. A parent first needs to meet the rules, then be able to take leave at work, and finally have circumstances that allow them to use it. South Korea faces difficulties at each stage, from insurance coverage to employers' reactions.

Women face a particularly difficult combination. They are less likely than fathers to qualify for parental leave, while care responsibilities remain concentrated on them. A system tied closely to continued employment can leave women with fewer options after they have already stepped away from work to prepare for or provide care.

Small workplaces expose a protection gap

The survey conducted through Global Research for Workplace Gapjil 119 and the Online Union found large differences by workplace size. Among employees at workplaces with fewer than five workers, 33.5% said maternity leave was freely available, against 75% at workplaces with at least 300 workers. For family care leave, the figures were 30.2% and 63.7%.

For parental leave, the gap between 31.9% and 72% was 40.1 percentage points. Employees at the largest workplaces were more than twice as likely to say they could freely use it. These responses describe workers' assessments of access, while government benefit records provide another view of participation.

Data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, obtained by Democratic Party lawmaker Park Hae-cheol, showed that employees at workplaces with fewer than five workers accounted for 10.4% of 677,979 parental leave benefit recipients from 2022 through June 2026. Employees at workplaces with at least 300 workers accounted for 41.3%, nearly four times as large a share.

The workforce comparison makes that gap striking. In 2024, the smallest workplaces employed 3.18 million people, while the largest employed 3.58 million. Their workforces were relatively close in size, but their shares of leave benefit recipients were far apart.

South Korean law provides maternity and parental leave rights regardless of workplace size and allows punishment for employers who dismiss or disadvantage workers for taking such leave. However, the Enforcement Decree of the Labor Standards Act excludes workplaces with fewer than five employees from its general protection against unfair dismissal, limiting access to relief through the Labor Relations Commission.

A dismissal case shows the cost of asking

An employee at a research support institution affiliated with a university told the Online Union that they received notice of dismissal after saying they would take parental leave. According to the consultation account, the employer told the worker to stop attending meetings, hand over responsibilities and move seats.

When the employee requested written notice, the employer said the workplace's size meant it did not need to provide one. The worker said they could not challenge the dismissal through the Labor Relations Commission and were considering a civil lawsuit.

Park Sung-woo, head of the Online Union, described the distance between legal entitlements and workers' ability to exercise them:

By law, the systems of maternity leave, parental leave, and family-care leave apply to all workers, but at workplaces with fewer than five employees they are effectively not guaranteed

Park called for the Labor Standards Act, including its ban on unfair dismissal, to apply fully to these workplaces. Extending the law was a presidential campaign pledge and a policy commitment of President Lee Jae Myung's administration. Labor groups said discussions had stalled, and the union announced a petition campaign seeking changes by the end of 2026. No legislative timetable was given.

Flexible hours are spreading slowly

Flexible working arrangements reached 16% of wage workers in 2024, up from 5% in 2015. That is an increase of 11 percentage points, but parents with young children still had much less access than their counterparts in the European Union.

Among women with children younger than six, 22% used flexible arrangements in South Korea, compared with 62% in the EU. The corresponding figures for men were 18% and 58%. Both comparisons show a gap of 40 percentage points.

Flexible work can allow an employee to adjust when or where they work, helping paid employment fit around childcare. The OECD also found that remote work was less common in South Korea than in any other member country.

Managers' behavior matters alongside formal arrangements. Research cited by the OECD found that women working under authoritarian managers who opposed flexible hours or required gatherings after work tended to want fewer children. For an employee caring for a young child, an expectation to attend an evening gathering adds another demand after the scheduled working day.

The findings connect fertility policy to everyday decisions inside companies. A leave benefit addresses time away after a birth; a predictable schedule and workable hours affect how a parent manages care after returning to the job.

Attitudes toward working mothers change slowly

In the World Values Survey, 65% of South Korean respondents agreed with the statement that children suffer when their mothers work for pay. That share was 25 percentage points above the OECD average.

Since 1990, agreement with that view fell by just seven percentage points in South Korea. Japan recorded a decline of 39 points, while the average decline across six comparable OECD countries was 33 points. The comparison shows how slowly attitudes toward working mothers have shifted in South Korea relative to those countries.

Such expectations add pressure to a decision that is already shaped by employment rules and workplace demands. Women can face an expectation to remain committed employees while also being treated as the parent who should step away from paid work to provide care.

Men and women also differed in their assessment of gender inequality. In a 2024 OECD survey, 60% of South Korean women considered it a problem in their country, compared with 35% of men, a gap of 25 percentage points. That difference helps explain the difficulty of building shared agreement about which conditions families need changed.

Concern about aging meets smaller family plans

South Koreans expressed strong concern about population aging in the 2024 OECD survey: 85% said they worried about it, compared with an OECD average of 65%. Yet South Korean respondents younger than 50 planned an average of 1.2 children over their lifetimes, including children they already had, against an OECD average of 1.8.

The planned family size was 0.6 children lower, or one third below the OECD average. Worry about the country's demographic direction therefore sits alongside personal plans for relatively small families.

The fertility rate measures something different from those plans. It estimates how many children a woman would have over her lifetime if the birth patterns recorded in a particular year continued. South Korea's recent figures show an improvement across two years:

• 2023: The total fertility rate was 0.72 children per woman.
• 2024: The rate increased to 0.75.
• 2025: The rate rose again to 0.80.

The OECD's response focuses on whether parents can sustain employment and family life together. Its recommendations address conditions that influence decisions over many years, including access to leave, the division of care and opportunities to return to work.

Fathers' leave and mothers' careers are linked

South Korea has already recorded progress in fathers' participation. Men accounted for more than 28% of parental leave recipients in 2023, up from 5.6% in 2015, as documented in the growth in fathers' leave. Reforms taking effect in February 2025 also doubled paid paternity leave around a child's birth from 10 to 20 days.

Paternity leave around childbirth and parental leave for a longer period of childcare serve different needs. Both can give fathers a greater role in care, while the OECD specifically recommends encouraging more men to use parental leave.

The OECD also urges support for women returning to quality jobs after a career interruption. Leave access helps a parent remain attached to an employer; opportunities to return matter for women who have already left employment.

The economic argument extends beyond birth numbers. Education and work experience build people's skills. When women cannot continue in suitable jobs, and men face pressure to concentrate on work rather than care, the economy makes less effective use of those skills. The OECD links better balance between employment and family responsibilities, together with greater gender equality, to economic growth as well as fertility.

For families, those recommendations translate into concrete needs: eligibility for support, the ability to request leave without retaliation, working hours compatible with care and a credible route back to a good job. South Korea's expanded spending provides support, but the OECD's assessment places workplace access at the center of making it useful.

Key Points

• Only 46% of mothers and 71% of fathers of children born in 2024 qualified to apply for parental leave.
• Family support spending reached 1.8% of GDP in 2023; spending per child was 26% above the OECD average in 2021.
• Just 31.9% of surveyed employees at workplaces with fewer than five workers said they could freely take parental leave, compared with 72% at the largest workplaces.
• Flexible work use among parents of young children remained far below EU levels.
• The fertility rate rose from 0.72 in 2023 to 0.80 in 2025, while the OECD urged broader workplace and labor reforms.
• The OECD recommended greater use of parental leave by fathers and support for women returning to quality employment.