Despite the improving perception, taking parental leave is still difficult at the workplace. (image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — With the newly amended legislation on equal employment, parents will now be able to simultaneously take paid parental leave starting on February 28.
A recent study showed that a majority of male office workers are willing to take parental leave, reflecting improving perceptions towards parents raising children together.
JobKorea, a job search portal operator, conducted a survey of 1,578 office workers, 87.3 percent (women 88.7 percent, men 84.9 percent) of whom said they support the idea of men taking parental leave instead of women.
At 70.5 percent, more than two thirds of male workers said they were willing to take parental leave instead of their spouse, up by more than threefold since 2015 (22.5 percent).
Despite the improving perception, taking parental leave is still difficult at the workplace. Only 11.1 percent of male respondents said they could take parental leave without peer pressure, while 38.4 percent said they could not take parental leave.
Roughly half said they could take parental leave despite peer pressure. Only 26.2 percent of male office workers said they had taken parental leave before.
Among them, 49.7 percent were employees at public corporations, followed by large-sized private corporations (43.3 percent), foreign companies (32.1 percent), and medium-sized firms (20 percent).
As to why male office workers are discouraged from taking parental leave, 40.6 percent said the office environment doesn’t allow parental leave for men, 17.2 percent said they might be subject to disadvantages when it comes to promotions and HR assessments, and 16.7 percent said they needed to maintain a stable income.
Another 55.4 percent of respondents said it is difficult in real life to maintain a work-family balance, while 41.3 percent said it is possible, albeit difficult.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
