<Anchor>



Last year, the total fertility rate in Korea was the lowest ever.

The proportion of couples who did not have children until their fifth year of marriage was 18%.

Although the government cannot dramatically raise this low fertility rate, it has issued various policies to ease the burden of childbirth and parenting.



For more details, reporter Nam Joo-hyun will explain.



<Reporter> The



most striking thing is the '3 plus 3'parental leave system to encourage fathers' care.



If both mom and dad use parental leave for three months, they will receive 2 million won each in the first month, 2.5 million won in the second month, 3 million won in the third month, and up to 15 million won in the combined.



It is not necessary for a couple to use it at the same time, it only needs to be used within 12 months of the child's birth.



This is to improve the reality, where 73% of women use parental leave before their child turns to a baby, whereas only 24% of men use parental leave, which will be implemented from January 2022.



[Park Hwa-jin / Vice Minister of Employment and Labor: It is expected that it will relieve the burden of child-rearing and prevent career breaks, which is concentrated on women.] After



three months, the monthly salary for 4 to 12 months is also up to 1.2 million won. It will increase to 1.5 million won.



Infants under the age of 1 are provided with an Infant Allowance, which is an expanded parenting allowance.



Parenting allowances are currently 150,000-200,000 won, starting with 300,000 won in 2022 and 500,000 won each in 2025.



In addition, the plan is to create 550 national and public daycare centers each year and increase the use of public childcare to 50% by 2025.



This policy is included in the government's five-year plan for low birthrate and aging, but it is evaluated that there is no groundbreaking content for solving the problem of low birthrate.



In addition, the public expenditure on family welfare will increase to 1.6% of gross domestic product after five years, but it is still below the OECD average of 2.4%.



(Video coverage: Jeong Seong-hwa·Park Hyun-cheol, Video editing: Choi Hye-young)