The Korea Herald

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Korean men spend least on housework, OECD says

By KH디지털2

Published : March 10, 2014 - 16:27

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(captured from KBS) (captured from KBS)
Korean men spend the least amount of time on housework among OECD members, according to a survey released by the Paris-based club of advanced countries.

The OECD studied 29 member countries concerning how much time adults of each gender spent on “unpaid work.” Unpaid work means the production of goods and services not sold on the market such as cooking, taking care of children and cleaning.

The survey, unveiled ahead of International Women’s Day on Saturday, found that Korean men spend a mere 45 minutes on unpaid housework a day, less than a third of the OECD average of 141 minutes.

Asian countries, in general, scored low on the index, with India and Japan spending 52 minutes and 62 minutes, respectively. Noticeably, husbands in China devote much more time, or 91 minutes, to such tasks than its neighboring Korea and Japan.

Korean men spend 10 minutes on child care following Japan (7 minutes) and Portugal (6 minutes). They put in 21 minutes on domestic chores, the second shortest amount of time behind India (19 minutes).

Meanwhile, Danish men seem to be the most helpful husbands, devoting 186 minutes to housework and child care, followed by Norwegians (184 minutes) and Australians (172 minutes).

The OECD said the data was taken from national time-use surveys from 2005 onwards, based on representative samples of up to 20,000 people.

By Ock Hyun-ju, Intern reporter (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)