Credit: Public domain.
According to a June 21 study by Statistics Korea 통계청, the government bureau in charge of collecting official statistics, the value of unpaid housework nationwide in 2019 was approximately KRW 491t (USD 435b), a 35.8% increase from the same figure in 2014. The pace of increase in unpaid housework was faster than the rise of the national GDP, which increased by 23.1% in the same time period.
Despite the greater availability in technology such as a dishwashing machine - which was not a standard equipment in Korean households until recently - the amount of time spent on household chores increased slightly, especially with the increase in time spent in pet care.
Men spent an average of 64 minutes a day in household chores, an increase from 53 minutes five years ago. Yet women spent 205 minutes on chores, spending more than triple the amount of time as men.