Korean Parental Leave Benefit Calculator

Parental leave pay in Korea comes from employment insurance, not from your employer. While you are off work caring for a child, the state pays a share of your ordinary wage, but the amount is not the same every month: the cap and the percentage change according to which month of leave you are in. Enter your monthly ordinary wage and the number of months, and the calculator shows the payment for each month and the total, and sets the bonus for both parents taking leave, or for a single parent, against the standard amount.

Two conditions must be met to qualify. The leave must last at least 30 days, and you need at least 180 insured days before the leave starts. The calculator checks these first and tells you how many days you are short. From 20 August 2026, short leave of 7 days also qualifies, and any period shorter than a month is prorated by the number of days in that calendar month.

Expectant parents deciding how long to take. If your ordinary wage is above the cap, what you actually receive is pinned to the cap, so whatever your salary, the first three months pay at most ₩2,500,000. Knowing the figure for your own wage in advance is what makes it possible to budget for the months off.

Couples planning to take leave in turn or together need to look at the staircase in the shared scheme. The cap for later months rises with the number of months each parent has used, so how the months are split can move the total by millions of won. The calculator shows how much one more month would add, which is exactly the question couples face when settling their dates.

The standard rule is 고용보험법 시행령 제95조제1항. Months one to three pay the full ordinary wage up to ₩2,500,000, months four to six pay the full wage up to ₩2,000,000, and from month seven the rate drops to 80% of the wage with a cap of ₩1,600,000. A floor of ₩700,000 applies throughout, so a low wage never produces less than that. A single parent, under 제95조의3제3항, gets a higher cap of ₩3,000,000 for months one to three only.

The scheme for both parents is in 제95조의3제1항. If each parent takes leave within 18 months of the child's birth, the caps for months one to six rise according to how many months each has used. With six months each the caps are ₩2,500,000, ₩2,500,000, ₩3,000,000, ₩3,500,000, ₩4,000,000 and ₩4,500,000; with three months each the staircase stops at ₩2,500,000, ₩2,500,000 and ₩3,000,000, and month four onwards reverts to the standard caps. The calculation multiplies the wage by that month's percentage, clamps it between the floor and the cap, and adds the months up. The old provision that held back part of the pay until after returning to work has been repealed, so the full amount is paid during the leave.

Take the calculator's defaults: an ordinary wage of ₩4,000,000 a month and twelve months of leave. In months one to three, ₩4,000,000 hits the ₩2,500,000 cap, so ₩2,500,000 is paid. Months four to six pay the ₩2,000,000 cap. From month seven, 80% of ₩4,000,000 is ₩3,200,000, which hits the ₩1,600,000 cap. The twelve months add up to ₩23,100,000.

If the other parent also takes six months and the shared scheme applies, months one to six become ₩2,500,000, ₩2,500,000, ₩3,000,000, ₩3,500,000, ₩4,000,000 and ₩4,000,000. The caps in months five and six are ₩4,000,000 and ₩4,500,000, but the wage itself is ₩4,000,000, so it stops there. The total is ₩29,100,000, ₩6,000,000 more than the standard. Had the other parent taken only three months, only month three would rise, to ₩3,000,000, for a total of ₩23,600,000, just ₩500,000 above the standard. From that position, one more month each adds ₩1,500,000.

The first is believing that "both parents on leave" simply means ₩4,500,000. That figure is the cap for the sixth month alone, reached only when each parent has taken six months, and only if the wage is that high. The second is relying on old articles that say part of the pay is withheld until after returning to work. That deferred payment no longer exists; the whole amount is paid during the leave. The third is forgetting the drop from month seven, when the rate falls to 80% and the cap to ₩1,600,000, so later months pay noticeably less.

The fourth is confusing the 180 insured days with time employed. Insured days count days for which wages were paid and can be fewer than calendar days on the payroll. The fifth is missing the claim window: you must apply from one month after the leave starts and within 12 months of it ending, and putting it off after returning to work can forfeit the pay. Finally, the ordinary wage is not base salary alone; it includes regular allowances, so take the figure from your pay statement.