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South Korea’s Gender Wage Gap: Among the Widest in the Developed World


Good morning. Welcome back to Surviving in the World (SIW), your newsletter written by CI students for anyone interested in global affairs. We always try to present select topics in global news in an easy-to-understand format.

 

In today’s issue, we explore South Korea’s gender wage gap, one of the widest among developed nations.

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Brought to you by: Keonhee Ahn (’25).

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Word Count: 640 / Time: 6 minute read.


Women’s Position in South Korea’s Labor Market
 

In 2023, the PwC released the Women in Work Index, which assessed the employment performance of women in 33 countries in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development).

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The gender wage gap serves as an essential indicator for measuring the level of gender equality, as well as economic inclusivity and fairness. (Source: sandbox project)

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What happened?: The status of women in the South Korean labor market is among the lowest in OECD countries.

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What is PwC? PricewaterhouseCoopers is a British multinational professional services brand of accounting firms.

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The Women in Work Index: The index measures and assesses the employment conditions related to women's economic activities.​

  •  A high score indicates that the environment is satisfactory for women to work in, while a low score indicates an unfavorable one.​

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Stark statistics: South Korea ranked 32nd with 43 points. South Korea has a gender wage gap of 31.2%, placing it last among all OECD countries for gender wage disparity in 2023​

 

What does the gender wage gap of 31.2% mean?​: Men earning median wages in South Korea earn 31.2% more than women. This is truly shocking when compared to the smallest gender wage gap in Luxembourg (0.5%).​

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It is difficult to understand why South Korea ranks low in gender wage equality, despite being a developed country (Source: voronoi)​​​

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Why?: To understand why a modern country like South Korea has the highest gender wage gap among OECD countries, we must examine the environment in which women in South Korea work.

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Career interruptions as a key factor: One major factor is career interruptions due to parental leave, and shorter paid parental leave periods for women will only aggravate this problem.

  •  A career interruption refers to the period when a woman leaves her job due to pregnancy, marriage, or childbirth until she returns to work.

  •  One contributing factor to this career interruption is the short duration of paid parental leave.

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The impact: When women are restricted to a short paid leave period, the burden of balancing work and childcare increases. 

 

Expert advice: According to Choi Seok-Hee, a professor at Hanyang Cyber University, when women leave the workforce due to parental leave, they often end up working at companies that offer lower wages.

  • This, in turn, lowers the overall wage level for women.

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Why should you care?:  With a birth rate of 0.6, the lowest in the world, South Korea faces a task it must overcome to avoid the path to extinction it is currently on.

  • The government and society must actively ensure the availability and support of parental leave to prevent career interruptions for women and reduce the gender wage gap.

  • This will help ensure that women no longer have to worry about childbirth affecting their careers.​​​​

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