Half of Dual-Income Couples With Preschoolers Face Severe Time Poverty, Study Finds

More than half of dual-income households with preschool-age children in South Korea lack enough personal time, a new analysis found, as child care and housework squeeze both leisure and sleep.

The Korea Labor Institute said Monday it analyzed the 27th time-use survey from the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study, focusing on married-couple households with spouses ages 20 to 64. Compared with couples without children, households with children spent 49 more minutes a day on mandatory time — paid and unpaid work and commuting — and had 41 fewer minutes of discretionary time. The institute attributed the shift mainly to increased unpaid labor.

The institute divided a 24-hour day into essential time (sleep and personal care), mandatory time and discretionary time, then measured time poverty based on discretionary time, leisure and sleep.

Time pressure was greatest when children were youngest. In households with preschoolers, the discretionary-time poverty rate was 35.3%, the leisure-and-social-relationships time poverty rate was 23.9%, and the sleep-shortage rate was 26.6% — the highest across all child-age groups.

Whether both spouses worked was also a key factor. Among all married-couple households, the discretionary-time poverty rate was 25.2% for dual-income couples, more than double the 11.6% for single-earner households. Leisure and sleep shortages were also more pronounced among dual-income couples, reflecting the combined burden of paid work, commuting and unpaid work.

The strain intensified sharply for dual-income households with preschoolers. Their discretionary-time poverty rate reached 51.1%, while the leisure-and-social-relationships time poverty rate was 36.6% and the sleep-shortage rate was 30.5%.

Jeong Hyeon-sang, a senior research fellow at the institute, said the combination of a period of concentrated care needs and dual-income work “rapidly compresses the time people can choose to use.”

Gender gaps were clear. In dual-income households, women carried a heavier unpaid-work burden than men, further limiting women’s discretionary and leisure time.

Among dual-income women with preschoolers, the discretionary-time poverty rate was 64.7% and the leisure-and-social-relationships time poverty rate was 50.5%.

Patterns of time shortage also differed by gender. Men were more likely to face sleep loss alone, while women more often experienced overlapping shortages in both discretionary and leisure time — a combination the institute warned could restrict recovery and social ties.

Experts said policy responses are needed because time poverty is concentrated in specific life stages and household types.

Jeong said dual-income households with preschoolers should be treated as a core support target, calling for expanded access to care services and stronger institutional measures such as more flexible working hours. He added that reforms to encourage men’s participation in caregiving should also be pursued to ease structural imbalances in time burdens.