bonuses and special leave for “unmarried” employees

More and more South Koreans think it is unfair to give more financial aid or leave to married people who want to start a family. To avoid losing employees, companies distribute checks to celebrate “non-marriages”.

In South Korea, more and more people are rebelling against government or corporate family policies. So, pSeveral Korean companies have just announced that they will eliminate inequalities in treatment between their married employees and those who live alone. For example, Lush, a company that has cosmetic and personal care product stores, has just launched the bonus for unmarried people. It’s an allowance of 500,000 won, or about 350 euros, and it’s also a special 10-day vacation to celebrate your non-marriage. This is exactly what employees who tell the company they are getting married currently receive.

To receive your non-marriage grant, you must declare to human resources that you have decided never to marry. In other companies, you have to wait a few years before receiving this unmarried check. At LG Uplus, which is one of the country’s major telecom operators, you can only request your non-marriage subsidy from the age of 43. But the group promises to gradually lower this age limit due to the explosion of celibacy in South Korea.

In South Korea, 42% of people in their thirties are not married

South Korea, like Japan, remains a very conservative society. In the vast majority of cases, people who are in a relationship will get married fairly quickly, that’s the norm. There is much less cohabitation than in the West. And there are almost no births outside of marriage. In South Korea, only 2% of babies are born to unmarried couples. And the employees who apply to receive these non-marriage subsidies are, in most cases, people who will live a large part of their lives alone. Currently, 42% of people in their thirties are not married in South Korea.

These bonuses for hardened singles are well accepted par employees, but they are still debated in society. Because the country is spending a fortune right now to try to reverse this explosion of celibacy. As there are fewer and fewer marriages, there are automatically fewer babies. The country has the lowest fertility rate in the world. There is now an average of only 0.78 children per woman in Korea. And at this rate, the population of 51 million will be halved by the end of the century.