hankyoreh

The number of South Korean stay-at-home mothers has declined over the past two years.

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According to data from Statistics Korea on Mar. 21, a total of 7.09 million stay-at-home mothers were counted last year, down 58,000 from the year before. The number rose steadily from 6.38 million in 2000 - the first year related statistics were tallied - to 7.30 million in 2013 before declining to 7.14 million in 2014 and 7.09 in 2015. The total for Jan. and Feb. 2016 was also down 93,000 from the same period last year.

The waning numbers appear to be the result of highly educated women in their twenties and thirties putting off marriage and childbirth for work, along with women in their forties and fifties actively seeking jobs because of difficulties paying for residential and education expenses on their husband’s income alone.

Indeed, the employment rate for women aged 20 to 39 stood at 58.2% in 2005, 4.5 percentage points up from 2000. Among women aged 40 to 59, it rose 6.4 percentage points to 63.8%. Dual-income households accounted for 51.6% of all couples in their forties and fifties.

While the number of working women has increased, quality of work remains poor. According to a Statistics Korea supplementary survey on the economically active population, men accounted for 46.2% of all irregular jobs last year, while women accounted for 53.8%. The wage gap between genders was also large, with male irregular workers earning an average of 1.79 million won (US$1,540), or 53.7% of the 3.34 million won (US$2,870) earned by male regular workers, while female regular workers earned 2.29 million won (US$1,970), or 68.7%, and female irregular workers 1.21 million won (US$1,040), or 36.3%.

By Kim So-youn, staff reporter

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