Child care leave 
Child care leave system
- Child care leave is a system that allows workers to take a leave of absence for a certain period to raise their children while maintaining their status as employees.
Subject to child care leave
- Where an employee parenting hisor her children or a pregnant employee protecting maternity (includingadopted children) aged eight years or younger or in the second grade or lowerof elementary school applies for a leave of absence (hereinafter referred to as“Childcare Leave”), his or her employer shall grant permission therefor (Main Textof Article 19(1) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family BalanceAssistance Act).
- Provided, That where an application for child care leave is filed by an employee who has worked in the relevant business for less than six consecutive months as of the date preceding the start date of child care leave (hereinafter referred to as “scheduled start date of child care leave”) The employer may not allow child care leave (Proviso to Article 19 (1) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act and Article 10 of the Enforcement Decree of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).
Application for child care leave
- An employee who intends to apply for child care leave shall submit, to his or her employer, a written application stating the following not later than 30 days prior to the scheduled start date of child care leave (Article 11 (1) of Enforcement Decree of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).
· Personal information of the applicant(e.g., name, date of birth)
· Name and date ofbirth of infants of applicants subject to childcare leave (If the applicant is a pregnant employee, she shallleave the child’s name blank and write the expected child delivery date insteadof the child’s date of birth)
· The scheduled start date of child care leave
· The end date of child care leave
· The application date for child care leave
- In any of the following cases, an application for child care leave may be filed not later than seven days prior to the scheduled start date of child care leave (Article 11 (2) of Enforcement Decree of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).
· If thereare risks of miscarriage or stillbirth for the pregnant employee
· Where a child is born before the expected date for delivery
· Where it is impracticable to rear the relevant infant or young child because of the death of the spouse, an injury, disease, physical or mental disability, divorce, etc.
The period of child care leave and taken by installments
- The period of child care leave shall not exceed one year, and the period of child care leave shall be included in the period of his or her continuous service (Latter part of Articles 19 (2) and (4) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).
- An employee may use childcare leave up to 2 times. However, female employees taking childcare leave for the maternity protection shall not be included in the case above. (Article 19-4(1) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).
Prohibition of disadvantageous treatment after child care leave
- No employer shall dismiss, or take any other disadvantageous measure against, an employee on account of child care leave, or dismiss the relevant employee during the period of child care leave. Provided, That this shall not apply where the employer is unable to continue his or her business (The main body of Article 19 (3) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).
Reinstatement after child care leave
- After an employee uses child care leave, the employer shall reinstate the relevant employee in the same work as before the leave, or any other work paying the same level of wages (Former part of Article 19 (4) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).
Payment of child care leave benefits
Target of child care leave benefits
- The Minister of Employment and Labor shall pay child care leave benefits to an insured employee whose qualifying days in covered employment under Article 41 before the date child care leave begins amount to at least 180 days from among such insured employees who have been granted child care leave for at least 30 days (excluding the period overlapping with the period of maternity leave) (Article 70 (1) of the Employment Insurance Act).
※ A person who intends to receive child care leave benefits shall apply for child care leave benefits between one month from the date such child care leave begins and 12 months after the date such leave ends. Provided, That those who fail to apply for child care leave benefits during the aforementioned period because of any of the following (Article 70 (2) of the Employment Insurance Act and Article 94 of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act).
√ A natural disaster
√ Illness or injury of the beneficiary or his/her spouse
√ Illness or injury of an ascendant or descendant of the beneficiary or his/her spouse
√ Obligatory military service under the Military Service Act
√ Arrest or execution of the sentence because of an alleged crime
※ Where an insured person applies for child care leave benefits, if he/she has transferred to another company during the period of child care leave or has been employed that meets the criteria prescribed in Article 116 of the Enforcement Rules of the Employment Insurance Act during the period of child care leave, he/she shall enter such fact in the application (Article 70 (3) of the Employment Insurance Act).
Amount of child care leave benefits
- The monthly payment of childcare leave benefits shall be 80/100 of general monthly wages as of the beginning date of the childcare leave. However, the maximum benefit shall be KRW 1,500,000, and the minimum benefit shall be KRW 700,000 (Article 95(1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act).
- If the child care leave is taken by installments, the period eligible for child care leave benefits above shall be the total number of days used (Article 95 (2) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act).
- If the period eligible for childcare leave benefits is less than one month, the payment amount shall be calculated according to the number of days of leave in the relevant month (Article 95(3) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act).
- An amount equivalent to 75% of child care leave benefits (in any of the following cases, the amount classified as follows) shall be paid monthly, and the remaining amount shall be paid in a lump sum if he/she has returned to the relevant place of business after the end of child care leave and has worked for at least six months. However, even if he/she cannot continue to work for more than six months for good reason under subparagraph 2 (c) of Article 58 of the Employment Insurance Act, the remaining amount will be paid (Article 95 (4) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act).
· Where the amount equivalent to 75% of child care leave benefits is less than the minimum amount paid above: Minimum amount paid according to the classification above
· Where the child care leave allowance is paid according to the daily calculation and the amount equivalent to 75% of the child care leave allowance is less than the daily calculation of the minimum payment above: Amount of the daily calculation of the minimum payment according to the classification above
- If the insured parents consecutively take childcare leave for the same child until December 31, 2022, the monthly payment of childcare leave benefits for the insured parent taking the second childcare leave shall be according to the following amounts (Article 95-2(1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act).
· Until 3 months after the beginning of the childcare leave: Equivalent to general monthly wages as of the beginning date of childcare leave (however, the minimum benefit shall be KRW 700,000 and the ceiling amount shall be KRW 2.5 million).
· From the 4th month to the end of childcare leave: Equivalent to 50/100 of general monthly wages as of the beginning date of childcare leave (however, the minimum benefit shall be KRW 700,000, and the ceiling amount shall be KRW 1.2 million).
※ In this case, notwithstanding Article 95(4) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act, the total childcare leave benefits are paid on a monthly basis (Article 95-2(4) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act).
※ If the insured parents simultaneously take childcare leave for the same child, Article 95(1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act shall be applied to the childcare leave benefits provided for the corresponding period (Article 95-2(2) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act).
- If both insured parents take childcare leave for the same child until 12 months after the child was born, the monthly payment of childcare benefits for the insured parents shall be in the following amounts (Article 95-3(1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act).
· Until three months after the beginning of the childcare leave: Equivalent to the general monthly wages of each insured as of the beginning date of childcare leave. In this case, the monthly payment ceiling shall be as follows, and the minimum amount of the monthly payment shall be KRW 700,000 for each parent.
√ If each parent took a month of childcare leave,respectively: KRW 2 million per month for each parent
√ If each parent took two months of childcare leave, respectively: KRW 2 million for the first month and KRW 2.5 million for the second month for each parent, respectively
√ If each parent took three months of childcare leave, respectively: KRW 2 million for the first month, KRW 2.5 million for the second month, and KRW 3 million for the third month for each parent, respectively
· From the 4th month to the end of childcare leave: Equivalent to 80/100 of the general monthly wages of each insured as of the beginning date of childcare leave. However, the minimum benefit shall be KRW 700,000 million, and the ceiling amount shall be KRW 1.5 million
※ In this case, notwithstanding Article 95(4) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act, the total childcare leave benefits are paid on a monthly basis (Article 95-3(4) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act).
Reduced benefits
- If an employee receives money or valuables from his/her employer for child care leave on a monthly basis during the childcare leave period and the sum of the following amounts has exceeded the general monthly wages as of the beginning date of the childcare leave, the Minister of Employment and Labor shall pay after deducting the exceeded amount from the amounts indicated in each of the following subparagraphs (Article 73(3) of the Employment Insurance Act and Article 98 of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act).
· Childcare leave benefits under Article 95(1), subparagraph 2 of Article 95-2(1), subparagraph 2 of Article 95-3 (1) and subparagraph 2 of Article 95-3(3) of the Employment Insurance Act (including the childcare leave benefits calculated by the number of days as specified under Article 95(3) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act): Equivalent to 75/100 of childcare leave benefits (however, the minimum benefit under the proviso of Article 95(1), proviso of subparagraph 2 of Article 95-2(1), proviso of subparagraph 2 of Article 95-3(1), or subparagraph 2 of Article 95-3(3) shall be applied for amounts below the minimum limit).
· For childcare leave benefits (including childcare leave benefits calculated by the number of days as specified under Article 95(3) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act) under subparagraph 1 of Article 95-2(1), subparagraph 1 of Article 95-3(1), or subparagraph 1 of Article 95-3(3) of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act: Equivalent to 100/100 of childcare leave benefits
Restrictions on payment of child care leave benefits
- If a person who receives child care leave benefits changes his/her job or is newly employed during that period, the child care leave benefits shall not be paid from the date of his/her change or employment (Article 73 (1) of Employment Insurance Act).
- Where an insured person secures employment under Article 70 (3) of Employment Insurance Act during the period of child care leave, no child care leave benefits shall be paid to him or her during the period of such employment (Article 73 (2) of the Employment Insurance Act).
- Where an insured employee has received, or attempted to receive, child care leave benefits by fraud or other improper means, he/she shall be denied child care leave benefits from the date such insured employee has received, or attempted to receive, such benefits (The main body of Article 73 (4) of the Employment Insurance Act).
- Provided, That the same shall not apply to subsequent eligibility for child care leave benefits that may be approved after the child care leave relevant to such improper claim (Proviso to Article 73 (4) of the Employment Insurance Act).
- Where a person has received or attempted to receive child care leave benefits by not specifying the fact that he or she has secured employment during the period of child care leave or by fraudulently specifying such fact, the scope of child care leave benefits may be set differently in consideration of the number of violations, etc., of which payment is restricted as prescribed by the Article 118-2 of the Enforcement Rules of the Employment Insurance Act (Article 73 (5) of the Employment Insurance Act).