Maternity leave worsens Korea's already wide gender wage gap

A woman seeking a job is checking information on job openings at a job fair in Dong District, Daegu, in November 2020. [NEWS1]

A recent study found that the longer a woman goes on maternity leave, the wider the wage gap becomes compared to their male counterparts.

Korea has the largest gender wage gap among Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries, and has been ranked No. 1 since related data was first compiled in 1992.

The median wage of women in 2020 was 31.5 percent less than that of men.

According to the "Comparative Analysis and Implications of the Gender Wage Gap in Korea and OECD Countries," which was published in the Women’s Economic Research journal on Wednesday, the wage gap between men and women was especially wide among women that were married and women aged 55 or older.

The study indicated that despite women becoming more economically active, once they take a break from their career due to maternity leave, when they return later at an older age, not only are the job opportunities limited to less prestigious jobs with less benefits, they also come with lower wages.

“The biggest reason that the working conditions for female contract workers is the worst is the wage gap,” said Hanyang Cyber University economics Professor Choi Sook-hee, who conducted the study. “In addition to narrowing the wage gap due to the type of employment [between regular and irregular workers], there is a need to improve women whose careers have been discontinued due to the burden of raising children.”

Given that the wage gap between men and women was 41.7 percent in 2000, the current 31.5 percent difference is an improvement. However, during the same period, the overall OECD average gender wage gap shrunk from 18.1 percent to 12.5 percent.

Even Japan, which ranks second among OECD member countries on gender wage gap, is 22.5 percent.

Korea also ranked among the lowest among OECD countries in terms of hiring women.

In 2020 the average employment difference between Korean men and women was 18.1 percent, meaning there are 18.1 percent more men that are employed than women.

The OECD average is 14.6 percent.

Six countries have a wider gap in employment between men and women than Korea, including Chile, Colombia and Costa Rica.

One positive note that the study mentioned was that the gap has dropped 5 percentage points compared to 2000, which indicates that, regardless to the wage difference to men, more women are working now.

Professor Choi stressed that despite more women working, the career breaks and glass ceiling are the primary reasons behind the continuing gender wage gap.

Women's employment rate sees a sharp increase among those aged between 25 and 29 but start to fall among women in their 30s. The rate moves up again at age 40, making an M shape.

The graph reflects that women in their 30s usually take breaks for childbirth and childcare and then rejoin the workforce later in life.

Choi said this is a trend that can’t be seen in countries where there is hardly any gap between the employment rate between men and women, such as in Northern Europe.

In the results of analyzing labor statistics of OECD member countries including Korea, the study found that when more stable maternity leaves with longer breaks with pay is implemented, the wage gap between men and women is smaller.

This indicates that the stability of paid maternity leave prevents women from cutting their careers short, resulting in better wages.

Professor Choi said the current trend in which older women get paid less than younger women shows that many of the women who return to the job market after a career break end up with simple labor jobs, which drags down the women's overall wage.

Kim Nan-joo, an associate research fellow at the Korean Women's Development Institute, figured that 66.5 percent of the gender wage gap was unexplained discrimination.

The study estimated that men on average got 5,273 won ($4) more than their female counterparts in hourly pay in 2021.

Of that amount, a 1,765 won difference was largely due to the number of years of employment, the industry of the work and the size of the business.

However, 3,508 won, or 66.5 percent, of the difference could not be explained.

“Even the 954.6 won difference is largely because of the career discontinuation of women,” Kim said.

BY JEONG JIN-HO [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]