Gender Wage Gap Unclosing Despite Increased Female Employment... Monthly Difference of 1.36 Million Won

Hourly Wages of Female Wage Workers at 69.8% of Males
Average Monthly Wage Gender Gap 1.36 Million KRW, Up 40,000 KRW from Last Year
Female Economic Participation Rate Up 4.5%p from 20 Years Ago
Household Chore Sharing Awareness Improved but Women Still Bear More Burden

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Although indicators such as female employment rate and economic participation rate have been steadily rising, the gender wage gap increased by 3 percentage points compared to the previous year.

According to the "2022 Statistics on the Lives of Men and Women" released by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the 6th, the gender gap in the average monthly wage of wage workers in 2021 was about 1.36 million KRW, up from 1.32 million KRW the previous year. The average monthly wage of wage workers was 3,833,000 KRW for men and 2,476,000 KRW for women. In 2021, the hourly wage of wage workers was 22,637 KRW for men and 15,804 KRW for women, which is 69.8% compared to men.

Last year, the proportion of low-wage female workers was 22.1%, which was 11.0% higher than that of men. Low-wage workers are defined as those earning less than two-thirds of the median wage of wage workers. The proportion of workers in the top 20% with relatively high wage levels was 9.9% for women and 28.3% for men, resulting in a gender gap of 18.4 percentage points.

Last year, the female economic participation rate was 53.3%, up 4.5 percentage points from 2000, while the male economic participation rate fell by 1.8 percentage points to 72.6%. During the same period, the female employment rate rose by 4.2 percentage points to 51.2%, while the male employment rate decreased by 0.8 percentage points to 70%. However, the average monthly working hours for women (155.4 hours) were 15 hours less than men, and the average length of service was 5.4 years, 2.7 years shorter than men.

The number of female executives in private companies with more than 1,000 employees increased 1.8 times compared to 2015. The proportion of female executives was 11.5%. The proportion of female managers increased in public institutions (20.7%), local public enterprises (7.4%), and private companies with more than 500 employees (23%) compared to 2019.

While awareness of household chore sharing has increased, women still bear a larger share of the actual household chores. The proportion of respondents who answered that "household chores should be shared equally" was 67.0% for women and 57.9% for men in 2020. Compared to 2014, this represents an increase of 14.8 percentage points for women and 15.2 percentage points for men, indicating significant changes in perception. However, the proportion who actually answered that chores are shared equally remained in the 20% range for both men and women, and the proportion who said the wife mainly does the chores while the husband shares them was in the 50% range for both.

The proportion of respondents who prioritized "work over family life" decreased for both men and women compared to 2017, while the proportion who answered "both are similar" increased. For women, it decreased from 33.8% in 2019 to 26.3% in 2021, and for men, from 48.2% to 38.8%. The proportion of women who answered "both are similar" surpassed 50% for the first time last year. For men, it increased by 6.0 percentage points to 45.0%, and for women, it increased by 4.1 percentage points to 52.5%.

Among the 111,000 people who took parental leave last year, the proportion of men was 26.3%, about 4.7 times higher than in 2015. The number of workers who used the reduced working hours system during childcare increased more than eightfold compared to 2015, reaching 16,692, with women accounting for over 90%.

The number of patients using infertility treatments in 2021 increased more than tenfold for both men and women compared to 2017. Last year, 78,099 women (54.2%) and 65,900 men (45.8%) received infertility treatments. The average age of first-time mothers in 2020 was 32.3 years, 3.2 years higher than in 2005.

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