Childcare costs in Korea

I found this article about a survey of the costs of raising preschoolers in Korea last week in a new free daily called ‘Clubcity‘. If you’ve read this post of mine, then the results of the survey will be no great surprise.

I warn you, the article is just a tad repetitive. But please don’t shoot the messenger! Whether they’re about the recent Korean summit, presidential elections, or Korean women’s breasts sizes, I’ve translated enough Korean newspaper articles now to notice that the second paragraph invariably says almost exactly the same thing as the first, which in turn is often a carbon-copy of the title…but as you’ll see, this article in particular seems ridiculous. I don’t know if this padding is a flaw of all the free dailies, or Korean newspapers in general, but I’ve got little choice because it’ll still be a while before I can translate articles of broadsheet newspapers in a reasonable time frame sorry. But the article is good for some basic stats.

맞벌이 영아, 유아 보육비 65만원

개인탁아 119만원 ‘최고’ 양가부모엔 평균 56 만원

김리선 기자 ok@clubcity.kr

만 5세 미만의 영아, 유아 자녀를 둔 맞벌이 직장인들은 보육비로 평균 65만원을 지출하는 것으로 조사됐다.

취업포털 잡코리아가 만 5세 미만의 영아, 유아 자녀를 둔 맞벌이 직장인 227명을 대상으로자녀 보육비 현황을 조사한 결과에 따르면, 맞벌이 가정은 자녀 1인당 한달 평균 65만원을 보육비로 사용하는 것으로 집계됐다.

구체적으로 ‘50만원 이상 60만원 미만’ 지출한다는 맞벌이 직장인이 35.7%로 가장 많았으며, ‘60만원 이상 70만원 마만’ (13.7%), ‘120만원 이상’ (11.4%) 등이 뒤를 이었다.

보육비는 아이를 맡기는 곳에 따라 차이가 나는데, 개인탁아가 119만원으로 가장 비용이 많이 들었으며 이어 친인척(61만원), 양가 부모 (56만원), 보육시설 (34만원) 등의 순이었다.

맞벌이 직장인들은 보육정책 개선방향으로 ‘공공보육시설 확대’ (29.1%)를 제1순위로 꼽았으며, ‘영아, 유아 가정세금 감면’ (28.2%), ‘직장 내 보육시설의 확대’ (22.0%), ‘보육비 절감’ (12.8%) 등도 필요하다고 밝혔다.

Working parents with preschoolers spend an average of 650,000 won a month on raising them

If professional babysitters are used then this cost jumps to 1,190,000 won a month, but if a grandparent looks after the child instead then the average cost is 560,000 a month.

A survey has shown that for working parents who have children under five (Western) years of age, the average cost of raising them is 650,000 won a month each.

Job portal site JobKorea surveyed 227 working parents who have children under 5, and the results showed that the average total cost of raising them these days was 650,000 won a month per child.

If the results are broken down, 35.7% of parents reported that they paid 500,000-600,000 won a month, 13.7% that they paid 600,000 to 700,000, and 11.4% paid over1,200,000 won a month.

The cost of raising a child is different depending on who is the primary caregiver during the day. If professional babysitters are used the the total cost up goes up to 1,190, 000 won a month, if relatives are used to 610,000 won, if grandparents are used to 560,000 won, and finally sending the child to a kindergarten or daycare facility brings the total cost up to 340,000won.

When asked what they wanted to be done make raising a child in Korea easier, 29.1% said that wanted the number kindergartens and daycare facilities to be increased, 28.2% said that they wanted lower tax rates for working parents with children under five,  22.0% indicated that they wanted the number of childcare facilities at workplaces to increase, and finally 12.8% wanted kindergarten and childcare facilities to be reduced.

I don’t know what happened to the answers of 50% of parents in paragraph three either. But for the figures we do have, bear in mind that they are totalcosts, so they include food, childcare, diapers…everything. It’s weird that giving your child to its grandparents during the day is cheaper than to other relatives, albeit by a very small amount. As for kindergartens and daycare centres, personally I was surprised that they were so cheap (my wife just looooved my joke that she should go back to work instead of looking after our daughter), but their inadequate numbers, and at workplaces also, was predictable. Unfortunately, given the Korean government’s reputation for painless but trivial fixes to these problems, then lower tax rates for parents with preschoolers is probably the most likely government response for now.

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