COVID-19 Infection Rates Were Equal... But Job Loss and Income Reduction Were Greater for Women

Survey of 2,000 Office Workers from 24th to 31st Last Month
Men Also Show Higher Social Safety Net Protection

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] A survey has revealed that women have experienced more disadvantages than men due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

Since January 2020, the percentage of respondents who answered that they had experienced job loss was 21.3% for women, 7.3 percentage points higher than the 14.0% for men.

The response rate for "income decreased" was also higher for women (37.7%) than for men (29.2%) by 8.5 percentage points.

This survey was conducted by Workplace Bullying 119 in collaboration with the Public Mutual Aid Fund, commissioned to the polling specialist firm Embrain Public, targeting 2,000 office workers from the 24th to the 31st of last month (confidence level 95%, sampling error ±2.2 percentage points).

When asked whether they were able to freely use vaccine appointments, testing, and quarantine leave, 53.4% of women answered "yes," which was lower than the 68.0% of men.

The rate of social insurance enrollment, providing safety net protection, was also higher for men than for women. 71.7% of men reported being enrolled in the National Pension, while only 67.1% of women did. For health insurance enrollment, 84.3% of men and 69.7% of women responded affirmatively, and for employment insurance, 84.9% of men and 72.6% of women reported enrollment.

Attorney Kang Eunhee stated, "Crisis situations like COVID-19 deepen inequality and severely impact jobs, but women find it more difficult than men to overcome such crises."

Meanwhile, starting from the 19th of next month, when the revised Gender Equality Employment Act is enforced, workers will be able to file correction requests with the Labor Relations Commission regarding discriminatory treatment by employers. If discriminatory treatment is recognized, the Labor Relations Commission must issue a correction order to the employer. Employers who fail to comply without justifiable reasons will be subject to fines of up to 100 million won.

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