Female Work Participation at Bottom in OECD
By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
South Korea's female economic participation ranks at the bottom among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as the country has failed to effectively utilize its female workforce.
Also, female workers are facing a range of barriers in pursing their professional careers because of marriage, childcare and workplace discrimination against women in salaries and promotions.
According to the Korea Women's Development Institute (KWDI) on Tuesday, the country's female employment rate came to 54.1 percent in 2004, ranking 27th among OECD member economies. In particular, the economic participation of females holding university degrees or above came to 59.1 percent, far below the OECD average 82 percent.
``In developed countries, the female employment rate increased sharply after their per-capita gross national income (GNI) exceeded $20,000. Particularly, the number of women engaged in professional fields rose at a faster pace than that of workers participating in simple manual tasks,'' a KWDI researcher Kim Young-ok said.
In Sweden, the female employment rate averaged 69.1 percent when its per-capita GNI was below $20,000, but the rate climbed to 80.1 percent when the per-capita income surpassed $20,000. The rate rose to 70.7 percent from 56.7 percent in Norway, and to 63 percent from 53.7 percent in the United States.
``However, Korea's female economic participation still remains below 60 percent even if the country is expected to reach a $20,000 per-capita GNI in the near future,'' Kim said. ``A large number of female workers still quit their job, following childbirth, with just a few of them returning to the labor market. Such a phenomenon disappeared in developed countries when the per-capita income got close to $20,000,'' Kim said.
According to the Bank of Korea (BOK), the country's per-capita GNI rose to $18,372 last year, up from $16,413 in 2005.
Also, female employees received a monthly average salary of 1.32 million won in 2005, equivalent to 68.5 percent of 1.9 million won the average male worker got. Most women tend to receive lower salaries, compared to their male counterparts, as few of them advance to high-paying managerial positions.
Kim said at a local bank early this year, the number of female employees accounted for 42.5 percent of the total workforce, but only 3.6 percent of its senior managers were women and no women served as an executive.
``The country is expected to suffer from labor shortage from 2020 because of a declining labor pool caused by rapid population aging and low birthrates,'' Kim said.
To better utilize the female workforce, she said companies should introduce a more objective and transparent human resources management scheme to make sure no female employees are discriminated against in wages and promotions because of childbirth and other family matters.
``The government should also provide differentiated training programs for women, as well as create a legal framework and workplace environment to help female employees work and take care of family matters more easily,'' Kim said.