Korean construction group Booyoung is offering workers a $75,000 bonus for each baby they produce, one of many eye-catching incentives on offer as politicians and companies grapple with the country’s demographic crisis.
“If Korea’s birth rate remains low, the country will face extinction,” Booyoung chair Lee Joong-keun told employees last month.
South Korea’s total fertility rate — the average number of children a woman is expected to give birth to in her lifetime — fell from 0.78 in 2022 to 0.72 in 2023, according to government figures. It is projected to fall to 0.68 this year, far below the 2.1 the OECD says is necessary to ensure a broadly stable population.
Political leaders have increased promises of financial incentives for prospective parents ahead of parliamentary elections next month, with parties from across the political spectrum announcing proposals ranging from more generous housing allowances and tax breaks to compulsory paternity leave for fathers and extended subsidies for egg-freezing programmes.“Time is running short, I hope every government agency approaches the issues of low birth rates with extraordinary determination,” President Yoon Suk Yeol told ministers in December.
“This is a matter of the country’s survival,” said opposition leader Lee Jae-myung as he announced his party’s programme in January. “It is an imminent challenge right at our doorstep, not a concern in the distant future.”
The effects of the crisis are already being felt. In 2022, the number of South Korean military personnel fell below 500,000 for the first time, while universities and schools reported dwindling student numbers and kindergartens have been converted into nursing homes. Last year, more prams were sold in South Korea for pets than for babies.
South Korean Companies Offer Workers $75K To Have Babies
