The six-month foreign caregiver pilot program to boost the nation's dismal total fertility rate of about 0.8 will continue for another year. The 98 foreign caregivers who arrived in Korea in September for the pilot program can continue to work with Korean households to help in child-rearing. The bold initial goal of expanding this number to 1,200 to service child-rearing households will not materialize for now. But the government has said that out of the 98 initial foreign nannies who have worked in Korea for the past six months, most have expressed their intention to continue their work. Having entered on E-9 visas, which were extended for a three-year stay, the foreign caregivers will also be able to keep working in the country.

The families employing these foreign caregivers expressed satisfaction. But what is holding back the program from nationwide expansion is the cost, which very few households can afford. Despite good policy intentions, the program is drawing skepticism, as beneficiaries are mainly high-income earners concentrated in certain neighborhoods and regions of Korea. This year, the Filipino caregivers will receive an increased hourly wage of 16,800 won ($12), from last year's 13,940 won. Factored into that hourly wage is severance pay and inflation. Should a caregiver work eight full hours a day, the monthly wage would amount to 2.92 million won, an increase of 500,000 won from the 2.42 million won monthly wage last year. Seoul, as a member of the International Labour Organization (ILO), is required to pay at least the minimum wage to all workers, whether Korean or foreign.

Considering that most Korean households earn 5.25 million won a month on average, 2.92 million won is not quite feasible for most families. A review done by the government showed that families with higher incomes made up the majority of customers. Of some 180 households using the service, about 41 percent of them are in Seoul's three most affluent districts located south of the Han River. The other families are in Sejong and Busan. About 73 percent are families whose monthly income hovers over 9 million won a month. About 23.2 percent of the households had even higher incomes, with monthly wages exceeding 18 million won.

The Seoul city government and the central bank last year touted the idea of having households sign contracts directly with the foreign caregivers, but faced stiff opposition from the labor ministry and unions. Every year when the annual minimum wage is set in Korea, labor experts, workers and employers wrangle over whether a few job sectors such as restaurant workers or domestic caregivers can be exempted from strict application of the minimum wage. Nevertheless, Korea would do well to consider why similar programs in Hong Kong and Singapore are implemented on a broader, more cost-effective basis. There are other different costs or social differences in the programs between those two cities compared to Seoul. For instance, to minimize transport and housing expenses, the foreign nannies in Hong Kong and Singapore usually live with the families while those in Korea live in separate housing themselves.

The difficulty of finding the right policy implementation has prompted one ruling People Power Party lawmaker, Rep. Na Kyung-won, to suggest that Korea back out of the ILO in order to proffer more affordable foreign caregivers. Instead of exiting from global multilateral organizations, Korea surely has sufficient policy-making experts, including legislators in the National Assembly, and the time — albeit little of it — to find ways to effectively and successfully integrate the foreign caregivers into the Korean economy.