SEOUL - South Korea’s parental-leave payments to foreign workers reached 36.45 billion won in 2025, roughly double the previous year.
Ministry of Employment and Labor data supplied to Rep. Park Soo-min showed payments rose from 18.15 billion won in 2024, according to Yonhap. The number of foreign recipients increased 50% over the same period, from 1,354 to 2,031.
Payments continued in 2026, with 1,476 foreign nationals receiving 26.717 billion won through July. Foreign nationals represented 1.2% of all parental-leave benefit recipients during those seven months, compared with 1.1% in 2025 and 1.0% in 2024.
A separate nationality breakdown covered all 4,861 foreign recipients from January 2024 through July 2026. Ethnic Korean Chinese were the largest group, with 1,154 recipients receiving 22.565 billion won. Vietnamese nationals ranked second, with 895 recipients and 12.873 billion won, followed by 652 Chinese nationals who received 11.542 billion won.
The increase in payments came as South Korea substantially raised its standard parental-leave benefit ceilings from Jan. 1, 2025. The maximum became 2.5 million won a month for the first three months, 2 million won for months four through six and 1.6 million won thereafter. The previous standard ceiling was 1.5 million won a month.
Foreign workers with eligible residence statuses can receive the benefit when applicable employment-insurance and parental-leave requirements are met.
For workers holding E-9 non-professional employment or H-2 work-and-visit status, labor ministry guidance says employment-insurance provisions covering unemployment and parental-leave benefits apply when that coverage has been applied for.
Park said foreign-employment policy should “consider the impact of parental leave more broadly, beyond simply bringing in workers or managing employment.”
