Korean Spouse's Miscarriage and Stillbirth Leave Calculator

A new provision, 남녀고용평등법 제18조의4, gives a husband leave when his spouse suffers a miscarriage or stillbirth. It takes effect on 2026-09-18. Up to 5 days of leave can be claimed, of which the first 3 are paid and the remaining 2 are unpaid. Enter your monthly ordinary wage, the days you take and whether your employer is a priority-support enterprise, and this calculator shows what you receive over the leave, split into the most that employment insurance could pay and the least the employer certainly owes. Enter the date of the loss and it also gives the deadline for claiming.

The insurance benefit has a ceiling. A Ministry of Employment and Labor notice that took effect the same day as this leave (제2026-67호, in force 2026-09-18) sets it at ₩84,210 a day; the calculator cuts the insurance share at that ceiling and shows the rest as the employer's share. The total received is the same either way.

An employee whose spouse has had a miscarriage or stillbirth, before putting the claim to the employer. The deadline is very short: the claim must be made within 20 days of the loss, a sixth of the 120 days allowed for spouse's birth leave. It is easy to miss in a difficult time, which is why the calculator turns the date of the loss into a concrete deadline.

HR staff use it as well. The leave is paid, so the employer owes the ordinary wage; at a priority-support enterprise the employer is released from that duty to the extent the insurance benefit is actually paid. Insurance pays no more than ₩84,210 a day, so for an employee on a higher ordinary wage the employer should plan to pay the difference.

The basis is 남녀고용평등법 제18조의4. Paragraph 1 sets the 5-day limit and the 3 paid days, paragraph 2 releases the employer to the extent an insurance benefit is paid, paragraph 3 sets the 20-day claim deadline from the date of the loss, and paragraph 4 prohibits dismissal or other disadvantage for taking the leave. The insurance benefit rests on 고용보험법 제75조 and 제76조제1항제4호, covers the first 3 days only, and is confined to employees of priority-support enterprises. The ceiling is published by the Minister under 고용보험법 시행령 제101조; notice 제2026-67호 Ⅳ currently sets it at ₩84,210 for the first day, and twice and three times that for two and three days.

The calculation runs like this. The days entered are cut back to 5, and the paid days within them to at most 3. The monthly ordinary wage divided by 30 gives the daily wage, and that times the paid days is the total received over the leave. That total does not depend on the ceiling: because the leave is paid and the employer is released only by what insurance actually pays, a low ceiling means the employer pays more, not that the worker receives less. At a priority-support enterprise the most insurance could pay is the smaller of the total and the ceiling (₩84,210 × paid days), and the employer pays the rest; elsewhere the insurance share is zero and the employer pays the total. The claim deadline is the date of the loss plus 20 days.

The calculator's default is an employee of a priority-support enterprise on a monthly ordinary wage of ₩4,000,000 taking all 5 days: 3 paid and 2 unpaid. The daily wage is ₩4,000,000 divided by 30, or ₩133,333, and 3 days of it, ₩400,000, is the total received over the leave. The daily wage is above the ₩84,210 ceiling, so the most insurance could pay stops at ₩252,630 and the employer's certain share is ₩147,370. The ₩400,000 total stays the same.

If the same employee works for a large enterprise, the insurance share is ₩0 and the employer pays the full ₩400,000. As for the deadline, if the loss occurred on 2026-10-01, the claim must be made by 2026-10-21, 20 days later. After that date it can no longer be claimed.

The most common mistake is claiming without checking the commencement date. The leave applies from 2026-09-18, so a loss before that date gives no entitlement. The next is assuming all 5 days are paid: only the first 3 are, and the other 2 can be taken but carry no wage. Some also believe a large employer means nothing is paid. Only the insurance benefit is absent; the leave is paid, so the employer owes the ordinary wage, and withholding it is unpaid wages.

People often confuse the 20-day deadline with the 120 days that apply to other leave and put the claim off. It runs from the date of the loss, so the safe course is to claim as soon as the diagnosis is confirmed. Note too that the proviso to 제18조의4제1항 excludes a miscarriage resulting from an induced termination, but where the grounds in 모자보건법 제14조제1항 apply the case falls outside that proviso and the leave can be claimed. Finally, this calculator works out the ordinary wage over the leave only. What insurance actually pays will depend on the ceiling notice and the insured-period condition, so check again on the employment insurance site before applying.