Korea’s unborn future: Lessons from OECD experience

Korea’s fertility rate fell to 0.72 children per woman over her lifetime in 2023, the lowest in the world, while surveys show that people ideally would want more children. Employment and wage gaps between men and women are among the highest in the OECD, pointing to difficulties in combining careers and motherhood as a main culprit, combined with high spending on private education and housing. Family policies, labour market structures and gender norms combine to define the career-family trade-off, but high performance in one does not necessarily make up for gaps in the other two. OECD experience can guide Korea in its efforts to improve the situation. Korea has scaled up family policies considerably and compares well with other OECD countries on many indicators, but gaps remain to bring childcare fully in line with working parents’ needs. Parental leave eligibility is restricted and take-up low for a number of reasons including low replacement rates and weak legal protection against discrimination compared to OECD best practice. The adoption of flexible working arrangements is lower and working hours remain longer in Korea than in most other OECD countries, constraining the time available for family. Labour market duality leads young people to delay career starts and family formation and weakens their financial position. Social norms assign the responsibility for caregiving to mothers and charge fathers with being breadwinners much more strongly than in the rest of the OECD.