S. Korean builder Booyoung offers employees US$75,000 per birth

SEOUL: South Korean builder Booyoung Group said Monday it will provide employees with 100 million won (US$75,000) per birth to help boost the country's record-low birth rate.

Booyoung has distributed a total of 7 billion won among 70 employees, regardless of gender, who have one child or more since January 2021, Yonhap news agency quoted the company as saying in a statement.

The company will stick to the incentive programme while planning to provide 300 million won or a permanent rental apartment for the third child given birth to by Booyoung employees, it said.

It is the first time for a South Korean company to give such a high fertility incentive in cash to its workers.

"With the current pace of declining birth rate, the country is expected to be at risk of extinction 20 years from now. The company has adopted the 'unprecedented' incentives for employee families to help ease their financial burdens and difficulties in balancing work and life," Chairman Lee Joong Keun said.

South Korea's fertility rate -- the number of children that are expected to be born to a woman over her lifetime -- hit a record low of 0.78 in 2022, far below other major countries.

It was much lower than the replacement level of 2.1 which would keep South Korea's population stable at the 50 million level.

Statistics Korea projected a decline in the number of newborns, which amounted to 250,000 in 2022, to 220,000 in 2025 and further drop to 160,000 by 2072.

-- BERNAMA

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