표준보육료 산출 연구

Abstract

Recently, childcare has become a policy priority in Korea and thus a large portion of the government’s budget has been allocated to the childcare sector. The current study aimed to calculate the standard childcare costs to increase economic efficiency, and consequently be able to improve the quality of childcare services in Korea. The Subjects of the study were 307 childcare centers that were selected by statements of accounts. They were classified according to 4 types: public, corporate, private, and family care. Focus group interviews, surveys, and case studies were conducted, and the data were contextualized by a literature review exploring domestic and international research on childcare cost policy, all with a view to establishing what constitutes fair childcare costs. Descriptive analyses, chi-square, and ANOVA were used for data analyses. Findings include the average annual expenditure per capita, and suggest the standard childcare cost, differentiated according to children's age and size of the facility. The main results are as follows: First, the monthly costs per child decrease as the child gets older. Specifically, the labor costs and the management costs of childcare curriculum are decreased greatly. Second, there are some different needs and spending by childcare types. Usually, family care centers show less spending and public care centers have less desires to increase childcare costs. Third, the standard childcare costs were higher than the actual average childcare costs when the quality of food and educational materials were taken into account, in which case, the figures are as follows: 877,878 won for a child under the age of 1; 589,224 won for a 1-year-old child; 474,603 won for a 2-year-old child; 324,245 won for a 3-year-old child; and 292,542 won for a 4- or 5-year old child. Lastly, as regards the size of the childcare facility, the study showed that the smaller the childcare center is, the higher the per capita cost of standard childcare.