Jung Da-hyun is a reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues in Korea, including foreign residents, education, environment and politics. Driven by a deep interest in people’s stories, she focuses on investigative and feature reporting through direct interviews and field coverage. She received the Amnesty International Korea Media Award for her “Deepfake Crisis at Schools” series. Reach her at dahyun08@koreatimes.co.kr. Always open to hearing your stories.
Korea’s gender pay gap widens to over 30%
gettyimagesbank
By Jung Da-hyun
Korea’s gender pay gap widened last year, with the average difference between wages for men and women rising to 30.7 percent, up from 2023.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family analyzed 2,980 companies required to disclose gender wage data and found that the average annual salary for men was 97.8 million won ($70,248), compared with 67.73 million won for women.
This resulted in a gender wage gap of 30.7 percent, up 4.4 percentage points from 2023.
While average wages declined for both men and women from 2023, women’s earnings dropped by 6.7 percent — far sharper than the 0.8 percent decline for men — contributing to the widening gap.
The divide was especially stark in industries employing large workforces. In manufacturing, the gap widened from 20 percent in 2023 to 29.1 percent last year. In information and communications, the gap rose by 4.3 percentage points, while the gap increased by 1 percentage point in the finance and insurance sector.
By industry, the largest gender pay gaps were recorded in wholesale and retail trade and in construction, both exceeding 40 percent, followed by information and communications at 34.6 percent. In contrast, the gap was smaller in sectors such as arts, sports and leisure services, as well as accommodation and food services.
Notably, even while the average gap in years of service between men and women narrowed, the wage disparity continued to grow.
Last year, the average length of service at the surveyed companies was 11.8 years for men and 9.4 years for women, a gap of 20.9 percent — down 2.1 percentage points from 2023.
The ministry explained that beyond years of service, variables such as rank, employment status and job type also shape wage levels.
Meanwhile, data from 344 public institutions showed a narrowing of the gender pay gap. The average annual salary for men was 72.67 million won, compared to 58.16 million won for women, with the gap standing at 20 percent. This represents a 2.7 percentage point decrease from 22.7 percent in 2023.
The ministry noted that it plans to include variables such as age, rank, employment type, career breaks and job characteristics in future analyses of the pay gap to better identify its causes.
It also vowed to introduce a pay transparency disclosure system that would require companies to publish gender wage data as part of efforts to close the gap.