The Ministry of Employment and Labor says the number of working fathers who took paternity leaves surged more than 50 percent last year.
 
According to the ministry on Tuesday, 76-hundred male employees took a paternity leave in 2016, up more than 56 percent from 2015. Such employees accounted for eight-and-a-half percent of a total of some 89-thousand workers who took parental leaves. That’s up nearly three percentage points from 2015.
 
In companies that have more than 300 employees, workers who took paternity leaves accounted for nearly 49 percent of all workers taking time off for childrearing. It marked a nearly 65 percent jump compared to the year before.
 
Companies that had between 30 and 100 employees saw growth of nearly 57 percent in the number of male workers taking paternity leaves and firms with less than ten employees saw growth of some 46 percent. The trend showed that more and more working fathers are taking parental leaves in small firms as well.  

In South Korea, male workers who have children under the age of eight can take a parental leave for up to one year.