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A South Korean company is paying employees to have more children

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

South Korea's declining birth rate has caused some companies there to offer incentives to employees to have larger families. One of the country's biggest conglomerates, the Lotte Group, says it will offer families with three or more children a seven- to nine-seat family vehicle free. But wait, there's more.

The construction company Booyoung Group is offering employees a $75,000 bonus for each new child. The company says 66 employees have taken advantage of the bonus so far. And Booyoung's chair says he also wants to help families who have a third child with housing, ensuring, quote, "no tax burden and no maintenance responsibilities."

Those benefits sound generous, but companies who really want to encourage employees to have more children might offer the help of professional engineers to tackle the ultimate challenge of parenting - assembling a baby's crib. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.