Gender Gaps in Labor Market and Policy Responses in Korea Toward Gender Focused Governance Reforms Bangkok, Thailand Gender Gaps in Labor Market and Policy Responses in Korea 2018. 8.16. Jongsoog Kim .

Contents 1. Gender Gaps in Labor Market 2. The Problems 3. Policy Responses in Korea 4. Remaining Things to do… .

Gender Inequality in labor market contributes to Gender Gaps Gender Development Index(UNDP) : Third Group(104th) of 161 countries (2015) Gender Inequality Index(UNDP) : 23rd of 155 countries(2015) Gender Gap Index(WEF) : 116th of 144 countries(2016) Pointed out Economic activities Higher positions Wage gaps Gender Inequality in labor market contributes to Gender Gaps

Economic participation of Men and Women 1. Gender Gaps Economic participation of Men and Women Source: Gender Inequality Index(GII). 2017. UNDP

Women’s employment by age 1. Gender Gaps Women’s employment by age Career disruption during childbirth and rearing Back to labor market when they are 40’s and into low paying jobs Source: OECD Employment 2017 Database

1. Gender Gaps Gender Wage Gap Source: OECD.stat(https://stats.oecd.org) (2016)

Women in National Parliament 1. Gender Gaps Women in National Parliament Source: Gender Inequality Index(GII). 2017. UNDP

1. Gender Gaps Women in Business Source: Economist(March, 2017), Glass Ceiling Index

2. Problems The career interruption of Women in Korea : Not a personal choice but a structural problem 54.3% of married women have experienced career interruption Only 39.4% without the experience of career interruption Women with experience of career interruption Women with an experience of resigning from jobs due to reasons of marriage, pregnancy, child-care, looking after family members and haven’t returned to workforce since 18.3% Women with an experience of resigning from jobs due to reasons of marriage, pregnancy, child-care, looking after family members and maintaining the first employment since returning to workforce 14.9% Women with an experience of resigning from jobs due to reasons of marriage, pregnancy, child-care, looking after family members and changed jobs a couple of times since returning to workforce 11.5% Women with an experience of resigning from jobs due to reasons of marriage, pregnancy, child-care, looking after family members and have returned to workforce since 9.6% Women without experience of career interruption Women with no experience of resigning from jobs due to marriage, pregnancy, child-care and looking after family members 29.4% Women who have been employed in the past but have no experience of resigning from jobs due to marriage, pregnancy, child-care and looking after family members 10% Women who have never been employed 6.2% Source: Kim et. Al (2013). Survey on Career Disrupted Women. Ministry of Gender Equality

2. Problems Women with career interruption reaches roughly 2,140,000, exceeds 20% of married women The scale and proportion of married women with career interruption and who still remain unemployed is large and high Women in her 30s was the age group with the highest number of career interrupted women. The average period of career interruption : Above 5 years - Below 10 years was 23.4%, Above 10 years – below 20 years was 22.2% Category 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Married women between the age of 15~54 9,866 9,747 9,713 9,561 9,420 9,273 9,053 Unemployed women (Rate) 41.4 41.5 41.8 40.7 40.5 39.8 39.1 Career-interrupted Women (Rate) 19.3 20.3 20.1 22.4 21.8 20.6 20.0 Career Interrupted Women The Duration of Career Interruption Source: Career Disrupted Women. National Statistics Office (2017).

2. Problems Discrimination in HRM Promotion and Evaluation by Male centered culture in organization Source: Jongsoog Kim et. al(2013). Panel Study on Women Manager.

2. Problems Greater ratio of women in temporary employment, gender wage gap remains wide Higher ratio of women in temporary employment and concentration in temporary employment becomes apparent according to women’s life cycle Korea is the country with the largest gender wage gap; however, the improvement is sluggish Source: Jongsoog Kim (2014). Women’s labor market reform. mimeo.

Women’s low employment drives low fertility 2. Problems Women’s low employment drives low fertility Compared to the major developed countries, Korea demonstrates low women’s employment and birth rate(2016) Korea Sweden France 1.8 2.2 1.6 2.0 1.4 1.2 OECD Average Women’s Employment Rate 62.0 Iceland Hungary Chile Greece Italy Spain Ireland Japan USA UK Canada Switzerland Norway Austria Netherlands Slovenia Portugal Czech Estonia Germany Denmark Luxembourg Australia Slovak Finland NewZealand Belgium Poland 55 60 65 75 80 90 70 85 OECD Average Total Birth Rate 1.71 Women’s Employment Rate (25-64 Age) Total Birth Rate Source: https://data.oecd.org/emp/employment-rate.htm, https://data.oecd.org/pop/fertility-rates.htm

Human rights and welfare 3. Policy Responses Institutions in Korea Policy Area Contents Title Gender mainstreaming Gender Impact analysis on laws and policies. Gender budget. Gender statistics. Gender education. National gender equality index Act on Gender Equality Social Participation Affirmative action: participation in national committees, public jobs, parliament, economic activities. Women’s HRD: women’s HR database, education and training. Right of parenting: parental leave, work and life balance Human rights and welfare Anti discrimination. National responsibility against Sexual Violence and harassment Social Culture Gender equal media, education, family relation. Gender responsive development and international relations

3. Policy Responses Policy Area Contents Title Equal opportunity Regulation of direct and indirect discrimination, Workplace harassment, Affirmative actions, Equal pay for equal valued work Act on Equal Employment and work and family balance Maternity protection, Work and life balance Maternity, paternity, parental leaves, Reduction of working hours during childrearing for workers, Incentives to provide leaves, Workplace childcare centers for employers Family Friendly Social circumstance Family friendly firms and communities. Family Friendly Certification on Firms. Act on Family Friendly Social Circumstance

3. Policy Responses Public Employment System for Career Disrupted Women consulting training matching care Higher Women Employment Rate ( 53.5 % in 2012 -> 56.3% in 2016) Lower Career Disrupted Women (22.4% in 2014-> 20.6% in 2016)

Parental Leave and gender equal effort 3. Policy Responses Parental Leave and gender equal effort 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Total 3,763 6,816 9,304 10,700 13,670 21,185 29,145 35,400 41,733 58,137 64,069 69,616 76,833 87,339 89,795 90,123 Women 3,685 6,712 9,123 10,492 13,440 20,875 28,790 34,898 40,914 56,735 62,279 67,323 73,412 82,467 82,179 78,080 Men 78 104 181 208 230 310 355 502 819 1,402 1,790 2,293 3,421 4,872 7,616 12,043 Male ratio 2.1 1.5 1.9 1.7 1.2 1.4 2.0 2.4 2.8 3.3 4.5 5.6 8.5 13.4 Male Ratio: 2.1% in 2002 → 13.4% in 2017 Fathers’ Months: 3months 100% of regular wage with up to 1,500,500(won/month) → 2,000,000(won/month) in 2018 Women’s Return after Parental Leave: 68.7% in 2008 -> 76.9% in 2015 Choosing career: Career disruption is decreasing

3. Policy Responses Establishing an environment that allows parental leave and shortened working hours during child-rearing period for all business types Establishing employment-friendly child-rearing mechanisms to increase women’s employment rate in child rearing period The ratio of business types with parental leave policy (Unit: %) The employment rate of women according to the youngest child’s age (Unit: %) Source: Kim et. al. (2017) Source: Jongsoog Kim et al. (2013)

Public Childcare System 3. Policy Responses Public Childcare System Workplace Childcare Mandatory requirement: more than 500 employees (300 women employees) 53% in 2012 -> 81% in 2016 Funded childcare either using childcare center or home care 0~2 years “full time/part time” for working parents National evaluation and certification system: 80% of childcare center are certified

Principal/vice principal in 3. Policy Responses Women in National Committees (%) Women in Public Sector (%) 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Government Executive 9.3 9.9 11 12.1 13.5 14.7 manager 11.5 13 14.8 16.4 17.2 18.8 Principal/vice principal in school 24.6 27.2 29.4 34.2 37.3 40.6 Women Human Resource Database: total 94,110 women and 67,860 of them transferred in National Human Resource Database in 2017

3. Policy Responses Gender impact analysis on laws and policies Gender responsive budgeting 91.4% of policies link gender impact analysis and gender budget

Improving Women’s Employment according to theirs life cycle 4. remaining things to do.. Improving Women’s Employment according to theirs life cycle Enhancing fairness when entering into the labor market in youth employment : Promote women’s employment in quality jobs. Strengthening maternity protection : Shortening working hours during pregnancy, expand maternity leave before and after giving birth, alleviate blind spot for maternity protection. Establish work-family reconciliation and a gender-equal child-rearing environment : Alleviate long working-hours, stimulate parental leave. Strengthening re-employment assistance mechanisms for women with career-interruption.

Establishing a Labor Market Environment 4. remaining things to do.. Establishing a Labor Market Environment Increase flexibility : Proliferating Flexible Work System and Flextime. Alleviating wage gap according to gender, strengthening assistance according to business and employment types to improve the working environment for female temporary employees. Strengthening assistance mechanisms for female socially vulnerable group by linking employment and welfare. Affirmative action to expand employment of women in diverse fields of work.

Establishing Social Infrastructure 4. remaining things to do.. Establishing Social Infrastructure Implementing employee-friendly care policy : Strengthening child-care assistance for working women (Expanding the accessibility of child-care service for double-income families, improving the quality of care policy, strengthening financial assistance policy to subsidize the cost of care without undermining potential employees’ desire to seek employment). Double-income family friendly tax system, financial assistance, strengthening social policies. Strengthening legal mechanism to overcome gender discrimination and glass ceiling: Eliminating gender discrimination in utilizing female human resources in companies, establish a proactive national policy on training middle managers, quota system to increase female executives. Strengthening career guidance to increase diversification of women’s career paths.

Gender Gaps in Labor Market and Policy Responses in Korea THANK YOU . Gender Gaps in Labor Market and Policy Responses in Korea 2018. 8.16. Jongsoog Kim