South Korean Firms Offers $75,000 Incentive For Employees To Have Babies

By Lucy Adautin

A South Korean company, Ssangbangwool, that specializes in underwear, announced on Thursday, its initiative to offer employees up to $75,000 to address the country’s declining birth rate.

The company outlined a plan to provide $22,400 for the first child, an additional $22,400 for a second child, and $30,000 for a third child, as reported by The Korea Herald.

“A low birth rate is an important task for our society to overcome. The company will take responsibility and put all-out efforts to help the country increase the fertility rate,” a company spokesperson, per the outlet.

Following Booyoung Group’s declaration earlier this month, where the construction firm based in Seoul announced a $75,000 per-child bonus for employees who have babies, another South Korean company joins the initiative.

Booyoung Group’s bonus was retroactively extended to employees who have had children since 2021, resulting in at least 70 children collectively born to the company’s employees since then. As a result, the firm is expected to distribute $5.25 million in cash to its workers, as reported by CNN.

Like in China and Japan, South Korea’s aging and increasingly imbalanced population means there could be a surge in retired older people who require medical care while the country’s supply of younger workers dwindles.

The national fertility rate was 0.78 in 2022, and the birth rate in Seoul home to a fifth of the country’s population was even lower at 0.59 that year, according to the latest government statistics.

Both men and women can claim the bonus, the outlet reported.

Like in China and Japan, South Korea’s aging and increasingly imbalanced population means there could be a surge in retired older people who require medical care while the country’s supply of younger workers dwindles.

The national fertility rate was 0.78 in 2022, and the birth rate in Seoul home to a fifth of the country’s population was even lower at 0.59 that year, according to the latest government statistics. The country needs a fertility rate of 2.1 to maintain its current population.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on February 13 ordered his administration to develop tax incentives and subsidies for companies that encourage their employees to have children.

In Seoul, municipal authorities are giving $750 every month to parents who have children until their babies turn a year old.