South Korea's birth rate is on the decline since 2015 (Representational)
A construction company in Seoul has come up with a unique way to help tackle the country's alarmingly low birth rate. The Booyoung Group is offering to pay 100 million Korean won ($75,000 or Rs 62,26,106 ) to its employees each time they have a baby.
As per a report by CNN, the company, in a press release, has said that it will pay a total of seven billion Korean won ($5.25 million or Rs 43,58,27,437) in cash to employees who have had a total of 70 babies since 2021.
The benefit will extend to both male and female employees, the company confirmed. "I hope we will get recognised as a company that contributes to encouraging births and worries about the country's future, "Booyoung Group's Chairman Lee Joong-keun said about the initiative.
Explaining that the company was aiming to ease the monetary burden of raising children on its employees through direct financial support, Mr Joong-keun added that employees with three children would have a special option to choose what benefit they would like to receive. They can choose between receiving “300 million Korean won ($225,000 or Rs 1,86,78,318) in cash or rental housing if the government offers land for construction”.
The company's initiative comes at a time when South Korea is recording dangerously low fertility rates. In 2022, South Korea recorded the world's lowest fertility rate of 0.78, a number that is expected to drop to 0.65 in 2025, as per Statistics Korea.
Fertility rate refers to the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime.
South Korea's birth rate has been falling since 2015. In a dire projection made in December 2023, the country's birth rate could potentially drop to as low as 0.59 by 2026, reaching population levels not witnessed since the 1970s. While authorities anticipate a gradual recovery in the birth rate to 1.08 by 2072, this figure remains significantly below the 2.1 births per woman threshold required for population stability in the absence of immigration. South Korea's total population is expected to fall from 51.75 million in 2024 to 36.22 million, a level not seen since 1977.