SEOUL: Seoul’s attempt to address the country’s low birth rate through an influx of foreign caregivers is set to wind down, as the South Korean government said on Wednesday (Dec 23) it would not issue any additional visas tied to the city’s domestic worker programme.
The project began in August 2024, when 100 Filipina caregivers entered South Korea on E-9 non-professional work visas, aiming to reduce high child care costs, widely cited as a major factor behind South Korea’s low birth rate.
Seoul had planned to expand the programme to 1,200 caregivers with full implementation from March. The programme, however, failed to gain traction. Higher-than-expected wages fueled public doubts about its effectiveness, leaving the project’s future uncertain.
The cost of the child care service has reached levels comparable to those provided by South Korean nationals in Seoul, as the city failed to implement a lower wage system.
Between September 2024 and February, the hourly rate was set at 13,940 won (S$12.25), translating into a monthly cost of about 2.42 million won for a 40-hour workweek.
From March, monthly fees rose by an additional 497,000 won, as the workers became eligible for severance pay under South Korea’s Labor Standards Act once their contracts exceeded one year.
The high prices skewed demand toward relatively affluent households, prompting criticism that the policy primarily benefited families already able to afford child care services.
A February survey by the laboUr ministry showed that 73 per cent of subscribers were households with combined monthly incomes exceeding 9 million won.
Residents of higher-income districts, including Gangnam-gu, Seocho-gu and Songpa-gu, accounted for 40 per cent of users.
“Although there will be no further expansion of the foreign nanny project, the Ministry of Employment and Labor will support the stable employment of those already participating,” a ministry official said.
“The nannies will be eligible to extend their work permits, in line with rules applied to other E-9 visa holders.”
Of the 100 Filipina caregivers who entered Korea, 17 have returned home, and one reportedly changed jobs to work as a hotel cleaner.
Under the E-9 visa for service sector workers, job changes are permitted up to three times within the sector.
The remaining 82, currently employed as household child care workers in Seoul, will be allowed to continue in service jobs nationwide for up to 58 months.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon repeatedly suggested exempting the foreign domestic workers from parts of South Korea’s labor standards, including the minimum wage. He cited examples from Hong Kong and Singapore, where foreign domestic helpers are employed at lower monthly costs.
The Labor Ministry and labor rights groups, however, strongly opposed the idea, arguing that South Korea, as a member of the International Labor Organization, is obliged to apply labour laws equally to Korean and foreign workers.
In June, Oh acknowledged that the initial concept behind the project had limitations.
“The idea of introducing very low-cost foreign labour is, in reality, difficult to justify when considering Korea’s international standing and labour environment,” he said during a city council meeting.
Experts say Korea’s high child care costs stem from deeper structural problems and cannot be resolved simply by introducing cheaper labour.
“The sector has long been characterised by entrenched low wages, rooted in the perception that child care is low-skilled work that anyone can do,” said Korea Labor Institute research fellow Cho Hyuk-jin.
“If wages are already lower than what the labour intensity warrants, would foreign workers remain if they were paid even less than Koreans? Such a system would not be sustainable.”
Activists for child care workers’ rights also said the approach was short-sighted, arguing that the attempt sidestepped the more fundamental task of expanding high-quality public child care.
“The government should move toward policies that both elevate the value of care work and ease the burden of child care,” said an official from the Federation of Korean Trade Unions. -The Korea Herald/ANN
