My Friend Eunji Almost Quit Her Job Because of Childcare
Eunji is one of the smartest people I know. She has a master’s degree in biochemistry from KAIST, works as a researcher at a pharmaceutical company in Pangyo, and earns a salary that puts her in the top 15% of Korean income earners. She and her husband Junho had their first daughter in March 2025. By September, Eunji was seriously considering quitting.
The issue was not money, not her employer, and not a lack of desire to work. The issue was childcare logistics. Her company’s hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The nearby daycare center closes at 4:30 p.m. Getting a spot at an extended-hours daycare required joining a waitlist with over 200 families ahead of her. Her mother, who lives in Daejeon, could only help two days a week. Hiring a full-time babysitter (known as “ajumma” care in Korea) costs 2.5 to 3 million KRW per month — almost half of Eunji’s take-home pay after taxes.
“I did the math,” she told me over the phone, sounding exhausted. “Working full-time while paying for private childcare meant I was essentially earning 1.5 million won a month after childcare costs. Is it worth being away from my daughter for that?” This is the reality for millions of Korean parents, and it is one of the primary reasons so many young Koreans decide not to have children at all. The Korean government has finally acknowledged that cash bonuses alone cannot solve this. The answer, they believe, is structural reform — and the plan they have announced is the most ambitious childcare overhaul in the country’s history.
The Plan: Universal Free Education for Under-5s by 2027
In February 2026, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Welfare jointly announced a comprehensive childcare reform package that will fundamentally restructure how South Korea cares for its youngest citizens. Here are the key components.
Merging Nurseries and Kindergartens
Currently, Korea has a confusing dual system. Nurseries (eorineejip, for ages 0-5) are managed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, while kindergartens (yuchiwon, for ages 3-5) fall under the Ministry of Education. This creates overlap, inconsistent quality standards, and administrative chaos for parents. Under the new plan, all childcare facilities for children under 5 will be unified under the Ministry of Education by 2027, with a single quality framework, curriculum, and regulatory structure.
This matters more than it sounds. Right now, a parent choosing between a nursery and a kindergarten is comparing apples and oranges — different curricula, different teacher qualifications, different inspection regimes. Unification means every child gets the same foundational education regardless of which type of facility they attend.
12 Hours of Guaranteed Care Per Day
This is the headline change. Under the new system, all public and subsidized childcare facilities will be required to offer care from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. — 12 hours per day. Currently, most kindergartens operate only until 2 p.m. (with optional “after-school” programs until 4-5 p.m.), and many nurseries close by 5 p.m. For parents with standard 9-to-6 jobs — let alone those with longer commutes — these hours are simply unworkable.
The 12-hour guarantee does not mean children will be in structured educational programming for 12 hours. The day will be divided into core education hours (approximately 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and extended care hours (early morning and evening), with the extended periods focused on play, rest, and socialization. This structure is modeled on systems in Denmark and Sweden, which consistently rank among the best in the world for early childhood care.
Improved Teacher-Child Ratios
Korea’s current teacher-child ratios for childcare are among the worst in the OECD. For children under 1, the ratio is 1:3. For children aged 1-2, it is 1:5. For ages 3-5, it can go as high as 1:20 in some facilities. The new plan sets targets of 1:2 for children under 1 year old, 1:3 for ages 1-2, and 1:10 for ages 3-5, with implementation phased over three years.
Achieving these ratios requires hiring an estimated 50,000 additional childcare workers over the next three years. To attract talent, the government is increasing childcare teacher salaries by 20% and creating new career pathways with progression from assistant to lead to supervisor roles. Currently, the average childcare worker in Korea earns about 2.2 million KRW per month (roughly $1,600 USD) — significantly below the national average wage. The salary increase will bring starting pay to approximately 2.6 million KRW, still modest but a meaningful improvement.
The “10 a.m. Start” — Flexible Work for Parents
The childcare reform is being paired with a workplace flexibility initiative that went into pilot mode in 2025 and is being expanded nationwide in 2026. Under the “10 a.m. flexible start” policy, parents with children under 8 can opt to begin their workday at 10 a.m. instead of the standard 9 a.m., with their work hours shifted accordingly (10 a.m. to 7 p.m. instead of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.).
The policy is voluntary for both employees and employers, but the government is offering tax incentives to companies that participate. Major conglomerates including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, LG Energy Solution, and Hyundai Motor have all adopted the program. Among companies with more than 300 employees, adoption is already above 60%.
Eunji’s company adopted the 10 a.m. start in January 2026, and it changed her calculus completely. “That one hour makes an enormous difference,” she told me. “I can feed my daughter, get her dressed, drop her at daycare without rushing, and still get to work on time. Before, I was waking up at 5:30 a.m. to make everything work. Now I wake up at 6:30. It does not sound like much, but that hour of sleep saved my sanity.”
What About Private Kindergartens?
South Korea has a significant private kindergarten sector, and these institutions have not been enthusiastic about the reforms. Private kindergartens charge between 400,000 and 1,200,000 KRW per month depending on the program, and they often market themselves on smaller class sizes, English-language education, and enrichment activities that public facilities do not offer. Some parents I spoke with worry that the unified system will level down quality rather than level it up.
The government’s response has been to create a “quality certification” system that private facilities can opt into. Certified private kindergartens will receive government subsidies in exchange for meeting the new ratio, curriculum, and operating hour standards. Non-certified facilities can continue to operate independently but will not receive subsidies, and parents choosing non-certified facilities will not receive the government childcare allowance (currently 280,000 KRW per month for ages 3-5). This effectively creates a strong financial incentive for both parents and institutions to participate in the unified system.
Will It Actually Work?
The plan is ambitious, and ambitious plans in Korea have a mixed track record. The education system is notoriously resistant to reform — previous attempts to reduce private tutoring spending, equalize school quality, and reduce academic pressure have had limited success against the deeply ingrained cultural emphasis on educational achievement.
However, there are reasons for cautious optimism. The demographic urgency is real — every policymaker I have spoken with understands that if childcare does not become dramatically easier, the birth rate will continue to languish regardless of how much cash the government hands out. The budget allocation is substantial — 12 trillion KRW (roughly $8.8 billion) over three years, making it the largest single investment in childcare in Korean history. And the cross-party political support is unusually strong, with both the ruling party and the opposition endorsing the core framework.
For Eunji, the reforms cannot come fast enough. Her daughter will be two when the new system starts rolling out in 2027. “If they actually deliver on 12-hour care with good teacher ratios, I will never have to think about quitting again,” she said. “And maybe we will even think about having a second child.” That last sentence is exactly what Korean policymakers are hoping to hear. Whether they hear it from enough parents to move the needle on the birth rate remains to be seen — but for the first time, the infrastructure to make it possible is being built.
