Women Still Spend More Time Than Men on Household Chores

Statistics Korea on Monday put an estimated monetary value of W490.9 trillion on household chores, which would account for 25 percent of Korea's GDP (US$1=W1,134). That boils down to W9.49 million a year per adult.

Women still spend much more time doing housework than men. In money terms, Statistic Korea guesses that the value would be W13.8 million worth a year for women, compared to just W5.21 million for men.

The figure is calculated as time paid at the minimum wage. Women spend 205 minutes a day doing household chores and men 64 minutes.

The gap is narrowing gradually. In 2009, women spent 223 hours and men 49 hours, so the difference has shrunk from 4.5 times to 3.2 times. But a Statistics Korea staffer said the main reason men do more housework is that there are more single men who live alone, rather than that married men are pulling more of their weight.