South Korean company to pay R1.3m to staff each time they have a baby
This is how they are attempting to fix the country's low birth rate.
South Korea has come up with an innovative way to increase its low birth rate.
According to CNN, the country’s abysmally low birth rate has a South Korean company willing to pay employees millions for each baby they have.
"Booyoung Group, a construction firm based in Seoul, plans to pay employees 100 million Korean won ($75,000) each time they have a baby."
That is a total of R1.3-million.
Stats reveal that South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world.
"Figures released on Wednesday show it fell by another 8% in 2023 to 0.72. This refers to the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime. For a population to hold steady, that number should be 2.1." (BBC)
Many women in South Korea are part of a generation who are choosing not to have children. The reasons behind not having children range from not finding a suitable mate to sharing the responsibilities of parenthood and the lack of time to properly parent due to long work hours.
Read more: South Korea birth rate falls to all-time low
Young people, in particular young women, have accused policymakers of not listening to them.
"Booyoung Group’s Chairman Lee Joong-keun said the company is offering “direct financial support” to its employees to help ease the monetary burden of raising children. Employees with three babies will be given an option to choose between receiving 300 million Korean won ($225,000) in cash or rental housing if the government provides land for construction." (CNN)
Interestingly enough, according to Macrotrends, the current birth rate for South Africa in 2024 is 18.747 births per 1,000 people, a 1.3% decline from 2023.
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