Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Republic of Korea (Ratification: 1997)

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Observation

Direct Request

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The Committee notes the observations of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) received, respectively, on 18 July 2022 and 8 September 2023. It also notes the comments of the Government on FKTU’s observations dated 5 October 2023.

Article 2 of the Convention. Practical measures to address the gender pay gap and its underlying causes. The Committee notes that, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the gender pay gap in Korea, which had been continuously decreasing since 2015 (where it stood at 37.2 per cent), is stagnating since 2020 slightly above 31 per cent, and even rose between 2021 and 2022 to reach 31.2 per cent. This places Korea at almost 20 percentage points above the OECD average (11.9 per cent for 2021). The Committee notes the KCTU’s observations that the gradual improvement is due to the increase of minimum wage and improvements of working conditions of precarious workers in the public sector, led by trade union action. KCTU underlines that the major cause of the wide gender pay gap are occupational gender segregation, low wages in female dominated occupations, and a concentration of women workers in non-regular jobs (e.g. part-time, temporary or dispatched workers) which offer lower wages and less promotion opportunities. The Committee also notes the Government’s statement, in its report, that it is continuously strengthening the affirmative action (AA) system (implemented since 2006) to close the gender pay gap and achieve overall gender equality. In June 2022, it amended Article 12 of the Enforcement Regulations of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-family Balance Assistance Act so as to clarify the concept of “wage” in the reporting requirement for male and female employees wage status and exclude short-term workers from the scope of reporting. According to the Government, this led to enhanced reliability of the data submitted. In this regard, the FKTU considers that the AA system is not effective in addressing the gender pay gap issue because it applies to companies with 300 workers or more whereas women workers are concentrated in smaller companies. Recalling that Korea has had the largest gender pay gap among OECD countries for the past 26 years, FKTU considers that it is difficult to assert that the current AA system has a significant impact on the reduction of this gap and calls for “a more innovative institutional enhancement”.

In its previous report, the Government had indicated that it was considering implementing a wage disclosure system (requiring the release of wage information by gender, employment type, occupation, etc.) after consultation with the social partners and relevant governmental offices. The Committee welcomes the indication of the Government that, as of the second semester of 2023, it is promoting the phased introduction of a wage disclosure system for public institutions (All Public Information In-One, ALIO) and listed companies (Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System, DART), and plans to expand it to include workplaces with more than 500 or more employees in the private sector as of 2025 (based on the evaluation of the pilot programme). The Government underlines that, relying on that information, it has been publishing a press release on the gender pay gap in listed companies and public institutions every year since 2020. In this regard, the Committee notes the FKTU’s observations that the system is still limited to the pilot programme with little visible progress so far. The FKTU anticipates a limited impact of the system, even when fully deployed, for two reasons: firstly, because it relies on a voluntary corporate participation without legal obligations and, secondly, because the information collected does not allow for a comprehensive analysis of the reasons behind the gender pay gap, which is insufficient for developing policy measures. Finally, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that it is strengthening support for pregnancy, childbirth and childcare in order to address the issue of career interruption which is a major cause of the gender pay gap. In 2022, in order to promote a culture of parental care, it significantly increased the parental leave benefits and introduced the “3+3 parental leave system” (a financial incentive to parents if they both take parental leave, simultaneously or consecutively, within the first 12 months of the child’s birth). In light of the stagnating high gender pay gap and persistent occupational gender segregation of the labour market, the Committee asks the Government: (i) to continue stepping up its efforts to address effectively the existing gender pay gap and more generally to achieve gender equality in employment and occupation; (ii) to continue providing information on all measures taken or envisaged to address the root causes of the gender pay gap, and the results achieved by these measures in the public and private sectors; (iii) to provide information on the progress made towards the full deployment of the wage disclosure system, in the public and the private sector, and the results obtained; and (iv) to provide information on any assessment carried out of the impact of the Affirmative Action legislation in addressing the gender pay gap.

Article 3. Objective job evaluation and its application in job-based wage systems. The Committee notes that, in reply to its previous request on this point, the Government provides information that is somewhat unrelated and partial. As regards the measures taken or envisaged to promote the understanding and implementation of the concept of work of equal value by employers, workers and their organizations, the Government refers to power of the Labour Relations Committee to determine if there has been violation of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and to issue corrective orders. In reply to the request to provide information on the number of enterprises that have adopted performance-based pay systems and carried-out objective job evaluations, particularly in sectors in which women are predominantly employed, the Government indicates that 51.4 per cent of companies in the finance and insurance industry introduced a “gain-sharing system”, 11 per cent in information and communication, 8.2 per cent in manufacturing and 2.6 per cent in health and social welfare services. In view of the above, the Committee requests the Government to provide clarifications on the “gain-sharing system” and how it contributes to objective job evaluations and the implementation of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value. It also asks the Government, once again, to provide information on: (i) the measures taken or envisaged to promote the understanding and implementation of the concept of work of equal value by the employers, workers and their organizations; (ii) the number of enterprises that have adopted performance-based pay systems and carried-out objective job evaluations, particularly in sectors in which women are predominantly employed; and (iii) the measures put in place to ensure that job evaluation and the remuneration process are carried out in a gender-inclusive way to ensure that performance pay systems do not discriminate against women.

Enforcement. Labour inspection. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that inspectors exclusively in charge of “equal employment at work” have been designated in 49 regional Employment and Labour Offices nationwide with a view to accumulate expertise in investigating and inspecting gender discrimination in employment. In addition, to enhance labour inspectors’ knowledge of laws and regulations and to develop their capacity to detect and resolve cases, the Government continues to offer, every year, a training course to labour inspectors, entitled “Understanding the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance System”. The Committee recalls that, in its previous report, the Government had indicated that it was planning to train labour inspectors on different types of workplace gender discrimination, including wage inequality, and how to prevent them. The Government also refers to the above-mentioned power of the Labour Relations Committee to issue corrective orders in case of gender discrimination in employment (effective since May 2022). Finally, the Government states that, in 2018, labour inspections were carried out in 26,082 workplaces. The Government issued corrective orders to eight workplaces (namely 0.03 per cent) which were found to be in breach of the prohibition of gender-based wage discrimination (Articles 8 and 9 of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-family Balance Assistance Act). Seven of those workplaces took corrective actions and legal action was undertaken against the eighth one. The Government does not provide information on the outcome of the legal proceedings, nor on similar statistics for the following years. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information on: (i) the measures taken or envisaged to reinforce the capacity of labour inspectors to prevent gender pay discrimination and enforce the principle of the Convention (including the training on wage inequality previously foreseen); and (ii) the number of inspections carried out each year since 2018, the number of cases of gender-based pay discrimination detected, and the follow-up given to such cases (corrective orders and legal action, including the outcome of legal proceedings).