Second Year of Parental Leave and Flexible Work Disclosure... Number of 'Single-Digit Male Parental Leave' Companies Drops from 60 to 33 [2026 Gender Equality Index]

Parental Leave and Flexible Work Usage Trends

Parental Leave Usage at 29% Across Top 100 Companies; Median Male Rate Rises from 8.5% to 12%

Lotte Shopping Leads with 70% Male Parental Leave; Financial Sector Trails at 9%

Flexible Work

Editor's Note
Numbers gain power the moment they are made public. Since the disclosure of parental leave usage rates began last year, the number of companies where the male usage rate remained in the single digits has nearly halved in just one year. This shift in workplaces is also behind this year's projected total fertility rate entering the 0.9 range for the first time in seven years. Now in its 11th year, the Asia Gender Equality Index has analyzed data from 137 companies and firsthand voices from the field, identifying both advancements and limitations in our workplaces. Transparent data brings change to the workplace, and changes in the workplace become a solution to low birth rates. The Asia Gender Equality Index aims to not only measure these changes but also to drive them forward.

Paternity leave, once a benefit offered only by a handful of leading companies, is now becoming a routine policy across large corporations. Among the top 100 companies, the number where the male parental leave usage rate stayed in the single digits has dropped from 60 to 33 in the course of a year. Meanwhile, companies with a male usage rate in the 10% range increased from 26 to 50, nearly doubling. As we enter the second year of mandatory disclosure, the degree to which individual companies utilize these policies is becoming even clearer.

According to this year's Asia Gender Equality Index survey, the overall parental leave usage rate among the top 100 companies has risen by 2.5 percentage points, from an average of 26.5% in 2024 to 29% last year. The rate for male parental leave use also increased by 2.4 percentage points, from 12.2% to 14.6%. With the public disclosure of parental leave and flexible work arrangements starting from the 2024 business reports, it became possible this year to directly compare changes between companies.

What stands out is the shift in distribution rather than the average itself. The number of companies with a male parental leave rate under 10% plunged from 60 to 33, whereas those with rates between 10% and 20% grew from 26 to 50. The median male parental leave rate among the top 100 companies also rose from 8.5% to 12%, entering the double-digit range. This indicates that these improvements are not just the achievements of a few leaders, but that the overall baseline is rising across companies.

In 2024, only three of the top 100 companies—E1, Pan Ocean, and Dongkuk Steel Mill—reported a male parental leave usage rate of zero percent. The numbers make clear that many company cultures, once recognizing parental leave as exclusively a benefit for women, are beginning to change.

Lotte Shopping Posts 70% Paternity Leave Usage... Lotte Affiliates Lead the Rankings

Lotte Group demonstrated a striking presence at the top. Lotte Shopping posted the highest male parental leave usage rate at 70%, followed by Lotte Chemical (65%), Hyosung TNC (50%), Lotte Chilsung Beverage (46%), and SK Networks (41%). Lotte Wellfood also ranked high at 38.9%.

LG Household & Health Care (37%), LG Uplus (32%), and Amorepacific (31%) all exceeded 30% for male parental leave usage, as did Hyundai Corporation, Lotte Rental, IPARK Hyundai Development Company, and Poongsan, each topping 25%. The number of companies where at least one out of every four eligible men took parental leave increased from nine to 13 in the space of a year.

The expansion of paternity leave is directly tied to the issue of women dropping out of the workforce. When the burdens of childcare fall mainly on women, it creates disadvantages for them during leave, return, and promotion. The more naturally men use these policies, the more the gender cost gap related to childbirth and childcare in the workplace is likely to shrink. This is why the Asia Gender Equality Index makes overall parental leave rates a key assessment metric.

However, substantial gaps remain between companies. While some post male leave usage rates between 30% and 70%, a third of the top 100 companies are still stuck in the single digits. These disparities are difficult to explain with just industry type or company size, as usage rates differ even among affiliates of the same group or similar sectors.

Average Flexible Work Rate Tops 60% ... Five Companies Post 0% Usage

Flexible work arrangement utilization, which has also been subject to mandatory disclosure for two years, saw a modest increase alongside parental leave. The overall flexible work utilization rate—which sums up use of staggered working hours, flexible hours, and remote work—rose nearly two percentage points among the top 100 companies, from an average of 58.1% in 2024 to 60.1% last year.

Kakao recorded the highest rate at 196.5%, followed by Naver at 193.7%. Hyundai Glovis (183.8%), SK Telecom (178.3%), Hyundai Autoever (173.3%), SK Gas (170.5%), and Samsung SDS (168.6%) also posted high rates. Because flexible work utilization is tallied by summing up all individuals using staggered, flexible, and remote work, employees who use more than one policy are counted multiple times. As a result, the figure can exceed 100%—in the Asia Gender Equality Index, any result over 100% is treated as a perfect score for evaluation purposes.

On the flip side, five companies—including S-Oil, LG CNS, Hyundai Corporation, Samchully, and Korea Petrochemical Ind.—recorded flexible work usage rates of 0%. Substantial differences remain between companies in the extent to which employees can choose when and where to work.

Financial Sector Parental Leave Improves to 47.3% ... Seven Firms at 0% Male Usage

The financial sector also showed improvements in both parental leave and flexible work. Across 37 financial companies, the overall parental leave rate climbed by 6 percentage points, from an average of 41.3% to 47.3%. The male parental leave rate in this sector rose from 6.2% to 9%, but this still trails the top 100 company average of 14.6%. At seven firms—iM Bank, Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance, Jeonbuk Bank, KB Securities, Kiwoom Securities, Korea Investment & Securities, and NH Investment & Securities—paternity leave usage was zero percent.

Among financial firms, Woori Card posted the highest male parental leave usage rate at 30%. Hyundai Card followed at 21.7%, with Lotte Card and K Bank each at 18%, KakaoBank at 17.9%, and Samsung Card at 17%. While Kwangju Bank had the highest overall usage rate in the sector at 88.8%, its male leave rate stood at just 6%. This underscores that the availability of such policies does not always align with gender-balanced usage in reality.

The use of flexible work in the financial sector also increased from 50.7% to 53.2%. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance posted 153.3%, Meritz Securities 146.1%, while KB Kookmin Card, Lotte Card, and BC Card each surpassed 100%.

It is difficult to definitively state that mandatory disclosure directly triggered the increases in parental leave and flexible work usage. However, it has enabled comparisons between companies regarding 'who actually uses these policies', which was opaque prior to disclosure. If the first year of disclosure was about confirming the existence of these policies, the second year—this year—marks the scrutiny of which companies are actively expanding use, and which are stagnating.

More important than disclosure itself, however, is cultural change within organizations. Eunjeong Park, research fellow at the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education, said, "Family-friendly workplace practices such as flexible work are major factors for satisfaction with work-life balance," adding, "Executives and management should view workplace culture as a key source of corporate competitiveness, and work to improve attitudes through a variety of channels so that family-friendly management becomes ingrained."

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