韩国企业慷慨解囊，员工喜获巨额生育奖励

Hongi is a 37-year-old father of two living in South Korea. After his second child was born last year, he took 6 months paid paternity leave to take care of the kids and to welcome his new baby. The company also gave him $72,000, no strings attached. Hongi says when he got the news, he was so excited he couldn't sleep.

洪基是一位37岁的父亲，与两个孩子生活在韩国。去年他的第二个孩子出生后，他休了6个月带薪育儿假来照顾孩子，迎接新生儿。公司还给了他7.2万美元，没有任何附加条件。洪基说，当他听到这个消息时，兴奋得睡不着觉。

And the good news didn't stop there. Hongi and his wife learned his company would give him another $72,000 retroactively applied for their first child who was born in 2021. Hongi says thanks to that gift, he and his wife have been able to move to a bigger house. They're also thinking about having a third child.

好消息不止于此。洪基和妻子得知，公司还将追溯性地为他们2021年出生的第一个孩子再提供7.2万美元。洪基说，多亏了这笔奖励，他和妻子得以搬进更大的房子，他们甚至在考虑生第三个孩子。

Hongi's company, a construction firm called Buyong, is one of dozens of firms in Korea offering financial incentives to employees if they have babies.

洪基所在的公司是一家名为富荣的建筑公司，它是韩国数十家向生育员工提供经济奖励的企业之一。

韩国面临严峻人口危机，生育率全球最低

Bloomberg's Hyong Hi Shin says these companies are hoping the baby bonuses together with a host of other family-friendly policies will help boost South Korea's fertility rate (生育率: 每名妇女生育子女的平均数量). That's now at just 0.75 births per woman, the lowest on the planet. Korea is indeed facing a population crisis. The population is projected to shrink by almost a third by 2072 if we don't do something. And it has massive implications. There will be a shrinking workforce. Tax revenue will be falling. And Korea is technically at war against North Korea, and there will be no people joining the military to protect the country.

彭博社的申亨熙表示，这些公司希望生育奖金以及一系列其他家庭友好政策能帮助提高韩国的生育率（fertility rate: 每名妇女生育子女的平均数量）。目前韩国的生育率仅为每名妇女生育0.75个孩子，是全球最低的。韩国确实面临着人口危机。如果我们不采取措施，预计到2072年人口将减少近三分之一。这将带来巨大的影响，劳动力将萎缩，税收将下降。而且韩国在技术上仍与朝鲜处于战争状态，届时将没有人参军保卫国家。

This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Juan Ha. Every week, we take you inside some of the world's biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons, and businesses that drive this ever-shifting region. Today on the show, why are Korean companies paying their employees big bucks to have babies? And are baby bonuses a long-term solution?

这里是彭博新闻社的《亚洲大事件》，我是胡安·哈。每周我们都会带您深入了解世界上一些最大、最具影响力的经济体，以及推动这个不断变化的地区的市场、大亨和企业。今天的节目将探讨，为什么韩国公司要花大价钱让员工生孩子？生育奖金是长期的解决方案吗？

Global birth rates have been declining for decades, falling from five births per woman in 1960 to just above two last year. The phenomenon is especially pronounced in South Korea, which has had the lowest birth rate in the world for most of the past two decades.

几十年来，全球出生率一直在下降，从1960年每名妇女生育五个孩子降至去年刚刚超过两个。这种现象在韩国尤为突出，在过去二十年的大部分时间里，韩国的出生率一直是全球最低的。

Hyong Hi Shin: It's a top priority for the government for many years. And last year, the former president, he declared a national demographic emergency (人口紧急状态: 指一个国家或地区因人口结构变化，如生育率过低、老龄化严重等，面临的社会经济危机).

申亨熙：多年来，这一直是政府的首要任务。去年，前总统宣布进入全国人口紧急状态（national demographic emergency: 指一个国家或地区因人口结构变化，如生育率过低、老龄化严重等，面临的社会经济危机）。

Hyon Hi Shin is a Bloomberg reporter based in Seoul.

申亨熙是彭博社驻首尔记者。

Hyong Hi Shin: So the government has been spending hundreds of billions of dollars to fix the problem.

申亨熙：因此，政府一直在投入数千亿美元来解决这个问题。

Developed countries with low birth rates like South Korea worry that unless they have more babies, they won't have enough workers to support their economies and enough taxpayers to support their aging populations.

韩国等出生率低的发达国家担心，除非他们有更多的孩子，否则将没有足够的劳动力来支撑经济，也没有足够的纳税人来支持老龄化人口。

In South Korea, the government's tried expanding child care subsidies, extending parental leave, offering mortgages at lower rates, even offering financial support for Seoul residents looking to reverse vasectomies. By law, a couple can have combined 3 years of shared parental leave. You can use those three years at any time and up until your child becomes 8 years old.

在韩国，政府尝试扩大育儿补贴，延长育儿假，提供低利率抵押贷款，甚至为寻求输精管结扎逆转的首尔居民提供财政支持。根据法律，一对夫妇可以共享三年育儿假。这三年可以在孩子8岁之前的任何时间使用。

Korea is not the only Asian nation offering incentives to would-be parents. In Hong Kong, residents are entitled to 14 weeks of paid maternity leave and a one-time baby bonus of $2,600. In Japan, families with three or more kids are eligible to get most of their university tuition fees covered by the government. But Korea's efforts to tackle its declining birth rate go above and beyond what many other countries are willing to do. And now Korean corporations like Buouyang are jumping in with initiatives of their own.

韩国并不是唯一一个向准父母提供奖励的亚洲国家。在香港，居民有权享受14周的带薪产假和一次性2600美元的生育奖金。在日本，有三个或更多孩子的家庭有资格获得政府支付的大部分大学学费。但韩国为解决出生率下降问题所做的努力超越了许多其他国家的意愿。现在，像富荣这样的韩国企业也纷纷推出自己的举措。

富荣公司的慷慨举措及其影响

Hyong Hi Shin: They were the first one to go very big. And the founder, he's pretty old, he's 84, but he's been doing lots of philanthropy work over the past several years. And February last year, the company usually holds New Year ceremony, so where the founder comes up and then he gives a speech. It was supposed to be just a regular ceremony, but he made a surprise announcement. The founder announced the company would give 100 million Korean Won, about $72,000 to every employee who welcomes a baby. And the new policy applied to all babies born within the past 3 years.

申亨熙：他们是第一个做出如此大手笔决定的公司。创始人年纪很大，84岁了，但过去几年他做了很多慈善工作。去年二月，公司通常会举行新年典礼，创始人会上台发表演讲。那本应只是一个例行典礼，但他却做出了一个令人惊喜的宣布。创始人宣布，公司将向每位喜迎新生儿的员工发放1亿韩元，约合7.2万美元。这项新政策适用于过去三年内出生的所有婴儿。

Hyong Hi Shin: There was a little of silence and then some people were shouting and then some people were almost like breaking up in tears.

申亨熙：现场一度有些沉默，然后有人开始欢呼，还有些人激动得几乎要哭出来。

For some couples, it was like winning the lottery. $72,000 is about double the annual per capita income (人均收入: 平均每个人所赚取的收入) in Korea. And the money goes directly into the employees' bank account and isn't taxed by the government.

对于一些夫妇来说，这简直像是中了彩票。7.2万美元大约是韩国年人均收入（per capita income: 平均每个人所赚取的收入）的两倍。这笔钱直接打入员工的银行账户，政府也不征税。

Hyong Hi Shin: You can't really buy a house with that, but you can get a new car and then you can hire some people who can help take care of your baby or your house.

申亨熙：你没法用这笔钱买房，但可以买辆新车，然后可以雇人帮你照顾孩子或料理家务。

At Buouyong, the bonus doesn't have any conditions attached. Employees can even get their baby payout and quit the next day. But no one has. Out of the 100 or so employees that have gotten the bonuses, Buong said all are still with the company. And since introducing the baby bonus more than a year ago, the company believes it's seeing an impact.

在富荣公司，这笔奖金没有任何附加条件。员工甚至可以在拿到生育金后第二天辞职。但没有人这样做。富荣公司表示，在获得奖金的大约100名员工中，所有人都仍在公司工作。自一年多前推出生育奖金以来，该公司认为已看到了效果。

Hyong Hi Shin: Buyong has given out the bonus to about 100 employees so far, and they paid 28 employees last year. That's about five people more than the previous three years on average. And the company thinks the policy did encourage some people to have babies. And in Korea, the corporate culture has been pretty rigid. And it's also construction company where it's dominated by male employees mostly. So it has to be long work hours and very paternalistic office culture. Because they introduced this policy, employees are encouraging each other to have babies and then get married and be on parental leave. So there is some change in the making. Hongi says Buyouong's apparent success has inspired other big companies in Korea to follow suit. She found dozens of public and private companies are offering payouts to employees who have babies. And handouts like these are costing Korean companies millions of dollars a year.

申亨熙：富荣公司迄今已向大约100名员工发放了奖金，去年向28名员工支付了这笔钱。这比过去三年平均多出大约五人。公司认为这项政策确实鼓励了一些人生孩子。在韩国，企业文化一直相当僵化。而且这是一家以男性员工为主的建筑公司。因此，工作时间长，办公室文化非常家长式。由于他们引入了这项政策，员工们正在互相鼓励生孩子、结婚并休育儿假。因此，一些变化正在发生。洪基说，富荣公司显著的成功激励了韩国其他大公司效仿。她发现数十家公共和私营公司正在向生育员工提供奖励。而这样的福利每年让韩国公司花费数百万美元。

Hyong Hi Shin: With Buouyong, it has more to do with the founder's philosophy. He's a patriotic man and he's been saying he wanted to give back to the society. For other companies, they see it as part of their corporate social responsibility programs (企业社会责任项目: 企业在追求利润的同时，对社会和环境承担的责任和义务) and it also helps them bring talent. In the end, these companies think paying workers right now to have babies could be cheaper in the very long term than running a business in a country where you have no babies and no workers to hire.

申亨熙：对于富荣公司而言，这更多地与创始人的理念有关。他是一位爱国者，一直表示希望回馈社会。对于其他公司来说，他们将其视为企业社会责任项目（corporate social responsibility programs: 企业在追求利润的同时，对社会和环境承担的责任和义务）的一部分，同时也有助于吸引人才。最终，这些公司认为，现在支付员工生育奖励，从长远来看，可能比在一个没有婴儿、没有工人可雇用的国家经营企业更便宜。

生育奖励的局限性与深层原因

But it's unclear if these incentive programs will do that much to boost Korea's birth rate. That's because baby bonuses only address one part of the problem: expensive child care in developed countries. The decision about whether and when to have children is very complex.

然而，目前尚不清楚这些激励计划能否显著提高韩国的出生率。这是因为生育奖金只解决了问题的一部分：发达国家昂贵的育儿费用。关于是否以及何时生育孩子的决定非常复杂。

Kathleen Mogulgard is the president and CEO of the Population Institute, a nonprofit in Washington D.C. that researches population trends.

凯瑟琳·莫古尔加德是华盛顿特区人口研究所的所长兼首席执行官，该研究所是一家研究人口趋势的非营利组织。

Kathleen Mogulgard: Often it is about the costs of raising a child. But there are also a number of personal decisions about timing, about spacing, about the kinds of relationships we have in our life, around whether or not we feel like that is the kind of future that we see for ourselves and for our families.

凯瑟琳·莫古尔加德：通常这确实与抚养孩子的成本有关。但也有许多个人决定，比如时机、间隔，我们生活中拥有的关系类型，以及我们是否觉得那是我们为自己和家人所预见的未来。

Other countries that have introduced baby bonuses have seen only short-lived success in boosting birth rates. Australia and Hungary provided cash handouts to new parents at various times in the past two decades. And while they saw an initial bump in births, their birth rates eventually declined again.

其他引入生育奖金的国家在提高出生率方面只取得了短暂的成功。在过去二十年间，澳大利亚和匈牙利曾在不同时期向新生儿父母提供现金补助。虽然他们最初看到了出生率的上升，但最终又再次下降。

Kathleen Mogulgard: What we have seen so far is that governments sometimes invest a lot of resources in these kinds of incentives and it doesn't move the needle in any significant way that we have seen so far.

凯瑟琳·莫古尔加德：我们目前所见的是，政府有时会在这类激励措施上投入大量资源，但迄今为止，我们并未看到它能以任何显著方式改变现状。

In Korea, though, there are glimmers of hope. The country's birth rate went up last year for the first time in a decade. And while it's not clear what the exact reason was for the uptick or if the trend will continue, almost all experts agree that handouts aren't a permanent solution. Structural changes are in places where fertility is dropping very low that can serve as a signal to governments to take a look at what is happening in society that is resulting in these kinds of extremes in fertility patterns and that could invite us to better understand the barriers that they may be experiencing to achieving their childbearing desires. There may be things that are playing out in terms of gender equity (性别平等: 指在社会、经济、政治等各个方面，男性和女性享有同等的权利、机会和待遇), inflexible work policies, or dynamics culturally within the household that might serve as disincentives for women to have a child or have another child.

然而，在韩国，仍有一线希望。去年，该国的出生率十年来首次上升。虽然尚不清楚这次上升的具体原因，也无法确定这种趋势是否会持续，但几乎所有专家都认为，发放现金并非永久性解决方案。在生育率极低的地方，需要进行结构性变革，这可以作为政府的一个信号，去审视社会中正在发生什么导致了这些极端的生育模式，这也能促使我们更好地理解人们在实现生育愿望时可能面临的障碍。可能存在一些因素，例如性别平等（gender equity: 指在社会、经济、政治等各个方面，男性和女性享有同等的权利、机会和待遇）问题、不灵活的工作政策，或者家庭内部的文化动态，这些都可能成为女性生育或再生育的阻碍。

人口多样性与经济生产力

Although women have been having far fewer babies on average compared to previous generations, the world's population is still growing overall. The United Nations says only around 60 countries are seeing their populations decline. But the population in more than 120 other countries, including the United States, is still growing and appears on track to keep growing for the next 30 years. Even though there is kind of this panic right now about population decline, we are actually in a period of continuing population growth for decades to come.

尽管女性平均生育的孩子数量远低于前几代人，但全球人口总体上仍在增长。联合国表示，只有大约60个国家的人口正在减少。但包括美国在内的120多个其他国家的人口仍在增长，并且似乎有望在未来30年内继续增长。尽管现在对人口下降有些恐慌，但我们实际上正处于未来几十年人口持续增长的时期。

Kathleen Mogulard from the Population Institute sees it this way: We're not living in a period of demographic decline, but demographic diversity (人口多样性: 指不同国家和地区在人口增长、结构和趋势上的差异性).

人口研究所的凯瑟琳·莫古尔加德这样看待：我们并非生活在人口下降的时期，而是人口多样性（demographic diversity: 指不同国家和地区在人口增长、结构和趋势上的差异性）的时期。

Kathleen Mogulgard: The world's population is likely to add another 2 billion people through this century. We're currently at about 8.2 billion people globally. Projections from the United Nations indicate that we are likely to continue to grow through this century globally to about 10 or more billion by the mid-2080s.

凯瑟琳·莫古尔加德：本世纪全球人口可能会再增加20亿。目前全球人口约为82亿。联合国的预测表明，到本世纪中叶，即2080年代中期，全球人口可能会继续增长到100亿甚至更多。

She says in some ways the story of the birth rate decline is actually one of progress.

她说，从某些方面来看，出生率下降的故事实际上是一个进步的故事。

Kathleen Mogulgard: There have been more opportunities for women and girls around the world, an expansion of rights for women and girls when it comes to education, when it comes to entering the workforce, and when it comes to accessing the services and the information that enable women to have agency over their reproductive lives (生育生活: 指个体在生育方面所做的选择和经历). And new research shows that in places with ultra-low fertility rates like South Korea, gender dynamics have a lot to do with why women are having fewer kids. Emerging research indicates cultural changes around gender roles and the greater sharing of household responsibilities and duties between men and women is something that can be really supportive of women's decision-making about whether to have a child or to have another child, when she can have that assurance that those responsibilities will be shared equally.

凯瑟琳·莫古尔加德：世界各地的女性和女孩获得了更多机会，她们在教育、进入劳动力市场以及获取服务和信息方面拥有了更多权利，这些使女性能够自主掌控自己的生育生活（reproductive lives: 指个体在生育方面所做的选择和经历）。新的研究表明，在韩国这类生育率极低的地区，性别动态与女性生育孩子数量减少有很大关系。新兴研究表明，围绕性别角色的文化变革以及男性和女性之间家务责任和义务的更大程度共享，能够极大地支持女性决定是否生育或再生育一个孩子，前提是她能确信这些责任将得到公平分担。

And while South Korea's fertility incentives and baby bonuses are aimed at supporting its economy, Kathleen argues countries don't necessarily need more babies to sustain their economic growth.

虽然韩国的生育激励和生育奖金旨在支持其经济，但凯瑟琳认为，国家不一定需要更多的婴儿来维持经济增长。

Kathleen Mogulgard: So for example, in Japan, which has been in population decline for quite some time, the per capita GDP (人均国内生产总值: 衡量一个国家或地区经济产出水平的指标，将国内生产总值除以人口总数得出) in Japan continues on an upward trajectory. So if we're thinking about what it means to have a healthy economic life for the individual, there has been continued economic growth on an individual level even as that country is experiencing population decline. So the overall economic picture for countries is less about the number of people but more about kind of economic productivity within a country. And there are lots of different ways to stimulate economic productivity. We can invest more in training and in education for people. We can think about ways to shift economic systems so that we get greater output from the same number of people or fewer numbers of people.

凯瑟琳·莫古尔加德：举例来说，日本的人口已经下降了一段时间，但日本的人均GDP（per capita GDP: 衡量一个国家或地区经济产出水平的指标，将国内生产总值除以人口总数得出）持续保持上升趋势。因此，如果我们考虑个人拥有健康经济生活意味着什么，即使该国正在经历人口下降，个人层面的经济增长仍在持续。所以，一个国家的整体经济图景更多地关乎国内的经济生产力，而非人口数量。刺激经济生产力的方式有很多种。我们可以更多地投资于人们的培训和教育。我们可以思考如何转变经济体系，以便在相同或更少的人口数量下获得更大的产出。

韩国的长期挑战与综合解决方案

To maintain a stable population where there's no growth or decline, the average woman needs to have roughly two children. Bloomberg's Hyong Hi Shin says South Korea is still a long way short of that number. And even the South Korean government acknowledges that to close that gap, it'll need more than a few companies offering baby bonuses.

为了维持一个没有增长或下降的稳定人口，平均每名妇女生育大约两个孩子。彭博社的申亨熙表示，韩国距离这个数字还有很长的路要走。即使韩国政府也承认，要弥补这一差距，仅仅依靠几家公司提供生育奖金是远远不够的。

Hyong Hi Shin: Their goal is to raise the fertility rate to one by 2030. Right now, it's at 0.75. And the government panel that I interviewed said you have to be working five times harder to reach that goal. Experts say money is a good way to encourage people to have babies but there has to be more other issues being resolved. So at smaller companies you might not get a bonus but they can be more flexible and it has to come all together to move the middle and bring about real change.

申亨熙：他们的目标是在2030年前将生育率提高到1。目前是0.75。我采访的政府专家小组表示，要实现这一目标，必须付出五倍的努力。专家认为，金钱是鼓励人们生育的好方法，但还需要解决更多其他问题。因此，在小公司可能没有奖金，但它们可以更灵活，必须多方合力才能产生真正的改变。