일-가족 양립을 통한 맞벌이가구 지원의 한국적 딜레마

Dilemma on Promoting Dual Earner Couples through Work-Family Reconciliation in Korea

MB administration's 'human new deal' projects which aim to promote middle-income households have been under way since March of 2009. In order to increasing the percentage of middle-income households, government is making a great effort to promote and keep the dual earner couples through work-family reconciliation programs. This paper attempts to review the unique and also complicated contexts in Korea which may stand in the way of creating more dual earner couples, thereby making the human new deal projects work better. Increased job insecurity, big wage gap between men and women, high proportion and massive female-domination of petty self-employed and small-sized companies, overinvestment for child education in terms of both money and time which is one of the household products in post-industrial society, and the longest annual working hours among OECD countries are analyzed as main barriers for promoting two-income families. We can go through the list of policy directions in urgent need such as development of professional child care, high quality part-time jobs, diverse social welfare service jobs which provide career ladders, sharing of care work between husband and wife, and reduction of household's major fixed spendings such as education and medical expenses.