Tag: gender

ROK Government Releases Gender Wage Gap Data for the First Time

Here is some gender wage gap information from the ROK government:

This image, provided by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, shows the wage gap between men and women in South Korea. The bar graph (R) shows men earned 79.8 million won (US$68,800) on average in 2020, while women earned 51.1 million won. The other graph shows men earned 77.7 million won on average in 2019, while women earned 49.2 million won.

Male workers in listed firms in South Korea earned 1.6 times higher wages than their female colleagues last year, a government survey showed Thursday.

Men were paid an average 79.8 million won (US$68,800) in 2020, while their women counterparts received 51.1 million won, according to the study on 2,149 listed firms by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

The gender wage gap, referring to the rate of men’s average pay to that of women, reached 35.9 percent last year, far higher than 12.8 percent, the latest average of the Organization for the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released by British weekly The Economist, according to the ministry.

It is the first time the South Korean government had unveiled the average earnings by gender in local listed firms.

Yonhap

So why is the ROK government revealing this for the first time? Could it be because of the ROK presidential election within a year where the ruling party can claim only they can save women from gender discrimination?

Anyway if people are wondering why there is a wage gap here is part of the reason:

The average length of corporate service was 12.2 years for male workers and 8.2 years for female workers last year. The difference in their career length marked 32.6 percent in 2020, down 2.6 percentage points from 35.2 percent tallied the previous year.

The ministry said the wage gap tends to be in line with the disparity in workers’ length of service. It hits 28.7 percent when both genders have worked the same length of time, but the gap hikes to 46.1 percent when men’s length of service is 50 percent longer than that of women’s.

Time in service plays a major role in the gap which makes sense. What the article does not say is what is the difference in hours worked? Are the male workers putting in more overtime than female employees? This could further explain the wage gap as well.

“Isu Station Assault” Case Adds to Ongoing Gender War in South Korea

Here is another one of these incidents where there is likely more to the story and both sides at fault, but radicals from each side will manipulate facts to push their agendas:

A recent assault case involving three men and two women at a bar near Isu Subway Station in Seoul — better known as the “Isu Station assault” case — has triggered an unexpected gender war online, after the women said they were attacked by men for their feminist choices, while others accused them of fabricating the account.

More than 350,000 Koreans signed an online petition asking for the presidential office to punish the three men after one of the two women claimed online that she and her sister were physically attacked for “not wearing makeup” and “having short hair.”

The woman, who is in her early 20s, said she deliberately chose the look — no makeup with short hair — as part of the “escape the corset” movement, a Korean feminist movement that rejects makeup and the rigid standards of beauty imposed particularly on young women in Korean society.  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.