Seoul City Hall Gender Wage Gap at 11%... Seoul National University of Science and Technology Reaches 55%

Promoting Gap Reduction through Gender-Balanced HR Management, Prevention of Career Interruptions for Women, and Training of Skilled Professionals

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The wage gap between male and female employees working at the Seoul Metropolitan Government headquarters was recorded at the low 11% range, which is lower than the average of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), but it still shows a double-digit difference. In particular, Seoul City University showed a gender wage gap of 54%, indicating a need for improvement.

On the 29th, Seoul City announced that, in accordance with the ‘Seoul Metropolitan Government Basic Ordinance on Gender Equality,’ it will disclose the status of gender wage gaps by institution for the Seoul Metropolitan Government headquarters, Seoul City University, and 24 Seoul Metropolitan Government investment and contribution institutions on the Seoul City website on the 30th. The disclosed gender wage gap was derived by analyzing gender wage information not only for regular employees within the authorized staff but also for all workers outside the authorized staff. The disclosure was based on the median value according to OECD analysis standards for 32,982 employees who worked full-time in 2020.

For the Seoul Metropolitan Government headquarters, among all 4,813 full-time public officials in 2020, 2,006 were female, accounting for 41.7%. Analysis of wage data showed a gender wage gap of 11.28%, which is lower than the OECD average gender wage gap of 12.53% (based on 2019 data).

At Seoul City University, among 700 full-time employees in 2020, 254 were female, accounting for 36.3%, and the gender wage gap was 54.99%. The main reasons for this gap were that the proportion of female full-time faculty members receiving high wages was relatively low at 13.9%, and the average length of service for women (60.5 months) was shorter than that of men (147.3 months).

For Seoul Metropolitan Government investment and contribution institutions, the gender wage gap varied widely by institution, ranging from 47.98% to 29.95%. The main reasons for the high gender wage gap in certain institutions were analyzed as follows: as non-regular workers were converted to regular positions, the length of service for female workers was relatively short; many female workers were engaged in lower-paid jobs; and the proportion of women hired for night shifts, shift work, or technical positions was low.

Kim Seon-soon, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government Women and Family Policy Office, said, “Taking this gender wage gap disclosure as an opportunity, we plan to gradually eliminate the gender wage gap through measures such as gender-balanced personnel management in the public sector, prevention of career breaks for female workers and extension of their length of service, and fostering gender-balanced human resources in specialized technical fields.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.