Child Care Providers Earn 1.6 Million Won Monthly... Ministry of Gender Equality to Improve Benefits, Raise Allowances

Ministry Announces Results of Child Care Service Status Survey

Call for Expanded Training and Higher Wages for Child Care Providers

Improving Access to Affordable and Timely Services

According to a survey, child care providers who visit households with children aged 12 or younger to deliver in-home care services recorded an average of 118.8 working hours per month and an average monthly income of 1,605,000 won.

Four out of ten child care providers indicated that an urgent increase in wage levels is needed, and the government also announced plans to continue raising care allowances to improve working conditions for child care providers.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced the results of the "2025 Child Care Service Status Survey" containing these findings on August 13, 2026.

This survey, which was conducted for the first time after receiving approval from the Ministry of Data and Statistics for statistical compilation, will be used as basic data for improving child care services and will be conducted every three years.

The survey targeted 4,000 households using the child care service, 3,000 households eligible for the service, 3,000 child care providers, 228 child care centers, and 250 center staff. In this context, households with children aged 12 or younger who are eligible to use the service are referred to as the general public.

Looking at the current state of service usage, 95.1% of households using the service were regular users. On average, these households used the service 4.6 times per week, totaling 16 hours and 24 minutes per week (about 3 hours and 33 minutes per session).

Regarding the wait time until service coordination, the most common response was "at least one week but less than one month" (31.7%), followed by "less than one week" (28.8%) and "at least one month but less than three months" (20.4%).

The average monthly cost (user's share of payment) shouldered by households was 357,000 won. The largest portion fell within the "100,000~300,000 won" range (53.0%), followed by the "300,000~500,000 won" range (21.4%).

When asked about what needs to be improved, the most frequently mentioned issues were "expanding the training and recruitment of child care providers to reduce wait times," "increasing government support for usage fees," and "raising the ceiling on government-supported service hours."

For child care providers, the average monthly working hours amounted to 118.8 hours. The plurality (33.7%) reported working 60~100 hours per month, followed by 22.9% working at least 160 hours (40 hours per week), and 15.3% working between 100 and less than 120 hours.

The average monthly net income for child care providers was 1,605,000 won, with most (52.9%) falling into the "1,000,000~2,000,000 won" range, and 15.3% in the "2,000,000~3,000,000 won" range.

When asked about their intention to continue working, the vast majority (91.1%) of child care providers responded that they would like to continue as long as their health permits.

Regarding the most urgent issue needing improvement for their work, "increasing wage levels" was cited by 39.0%, followed by "smoother coordination with user households" (24.2%), and "strengthening education for service user households" (21.0%).

2026 Idol Care Service Fee Schedule (Source: Ministry of Gender Equality and Family)

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family plans to implement policy improvements based on these survey results, aiming to enable families in need of care to access services more affordably and in a timely manner.

Kim Garo, Director of Family Policy at the ministry, stated, "Based on the findings that households with school-aged children are particularly conscious of the cost burden, we will pursue measures to alleviate these expenses." As of this year, the hourly care allowance (usage fee) is 12,790 won, a 5% increase from the previous year.

The ministry will also improve the system for households under greater care burden, such as dual-income, single-parent, and multi-child families, to ensure smooth service provision. In addition, the government is preparing tax benefit plans to ease the financial burden of service usage.

Director Kim added, "We will continue to increase the care allowance to improve treatment of child care providers, reinforce promotion of the national certification system, and enhance public awareness so that child care providers may be recognized and respected as care professionals."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.