[비즈한국] Although the proportion of men among those on parental leave surpassed 30% for the first time in 2024, the usage rate of parental leave among male bank employees remains below this level. Following a revision to corporate disclosure reporting standards in November 2024, companies with December fiscal year-ends are required to specify parental leave usage rates in their annual business reports filed in March. An examination of the parental leave support systems of 11 domestic banks that published their 2024 business reports revealed that while the proportion of male parental leave users at major banks ranged between 10% and 20%, some regional banks were found to have recorded "0%" for three consecutive years.
Disclosure of Parenting Support Systems and Work-Life Balance Expanded to Private Companies
The Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy established a plan at the 5th Emergency Population Response Meeting in October 2024 to disclose the parental leave usage status of private companies. This move followed the revision of reporting standards to include parental leave usage rates. Accordingly, as of November 15, 2024, new items regarding parental leave and shortened working hour usage rates have been added to corporate disclosure forms. Companies are now required to report the number and usage rates of employees on parental leave, as well as the number and usage rates of those utilizing shortened working hours during pregnancy and childcare periods.
As of March 25, an analysis of the parental leave usage rates of 11 banks that disclosed their 2024 business reports (IBK, KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, Hana, iM Bank, Kyongnam, Busan, Jeonbuk, Jeju, and KakaoBank323410) shows significant differences in the utilization of parenting support systems based on the size and nature of the banks. In particular, some regional banks with fewer employees recorded a 0% parental leave usage rate for male staff for three consecutive years.
Parental leave usage rate refers to the percentage of employees who utilized parental leave within one year after childbirth among all employees who have children aged one year or younger as of the birth date. The bank with the highest overall parental leave usage rate in 2024 was IBK (Industrial Bank of Korea)024110, recording 64.5%.
Perhaps due to its nature as a public institution, IBK had an overwhelmingly higher number of parental leave users compared to other banks. The total number of parental leave users at IBK in 2024 was 1,391. The total number of employees at IBK (including contract workers) is 13,566, a stark contrast to Shinhan Bank, which has a similar size but only 470 total parental leave users.
Among the four major commercial banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, and Hana), Hana Bank had the highest parental leave usage rate at 59.6%. Following were Woori Bank at 53.2%, Shinhan Bank at 52.8%, and Kookmin Bank at 45.2%. In the case of Hana Bank, the usage rate for female employees reached 100% for three consecutive years.
The ranking shifts when looking at the absolute number of parental leave users. Kookmin Bank had the highest total number of users at 562 (410 women, 152 men), followed by Shinhan Bank with 470 (393 women, 77 men), Woori Bank with 349 (267 women, 82 men), and Hana Bank with 185 (158 women, 27 men). Total employee counts are 15,927 for Kookmin Bank, 14,329 for Woori Bank, 13,083 for Shinhan Bank, and 11,892 for Hana Bank.
Among the four major commercial banks, Woori Bank had the highest usage rate for male parental leave (13.6%). It was followed by Shinhan Bank (7.5%), Hana Bank (7.3%), and Kookmin Bank (7.0%). The number of male parental leave users at Woori Bank nearly doubled in one year, from 44 in 2023 to 82 in 2024. Woori Bank was the only one among the 11 banks where the male parental leave usage rate exceeded 10%.
Big 4 Banks Male Parental Leave Usage Rates Range from 10% to 20%
Looking at the gender ratio of all parental leave users, the male percentage in the banking sector was lower than the national average. According to the status of beneficiaries of work-life support systems announced by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in February, there were 132,535 parental leave users in 2024, of which men (41,829) accounted for 31.6%. As the number of men taking parental leave has increased rapidly over the past 10 years, the male proportion surpassed the 30% mark for the first time.
However, at IBK, which is the only bank among the 11 to have over 1,000 annual parental leave users, the male proportion of parental leave users in 2024 was a mere 3.9% (1,339 women, 52 men). This means that for every 100 employees with children aged one or younger, fewer than 4 men used parental leave.
The situation is even more severe for banks based in the regions. Jeonbuk Bank had zero male parental leave users from 2022 to 2024. During the same period, the number of female users was 37, 38, and 34, respectively, with overall parental leave usage rates of 41%, 44%, and 31%.
The number of male parental leave users at iM Bank (formerly Daegu Bank) was 1 in 2022, 0 in 2023, and 1 in 2024. Because the number of male users was so low, it was recorded as 0% in terms of ratio. During the same period, the number of female users was 93, 90, and 85. The overall parental leave usage rate decreased from 61.8% in 2022 to 58.6% in 2023, and 43.2% in 2024.
It is also notable that the gender ratio of the total workforce at both banks does not show a significant gap. Of the 1,334 total employees at Jeonbuk Bank, 679 were men and 655 were women, while at iM Bank, there were 1,609 women and 1,548 men out of a total of 3,157. This suggests that despite the near-even gender ratio, almost no male employees are using parental leave.
A phenomenon was also observed where larger banks tended to have a higher proportion of male parental leave users. In the case of the four major commercial banks with relatively large workforces, the proportion of men among total parental leave users reached 10–20%. The highest was Kookmin Bank (27.0%), which also has the largest number of employees among the four banks. This was followed by Woori Bank at 23.5%, Shinhan Bank at 16.4%, and Hana Bank at 14.6%.