Equal Pay for Equal Work

By Julian Barker

To see the New Year in, many people across the world are looking back at the past decade, as well as to the future in the hope that 2010 will bring new opportunities. For 100 Indian teachers a new door is about to open, as for the first time, South Korea will tentatively welcome English teachers from India.

The decision to employ English teachers from India was made in 2009, and debate within the Korean government has now turned to the question of remuneration for the 100 teachers.

How much to pay the new teachers is indeed an important question, and the South Korean government may well be able to hire Indian teachers at a lower cost than foreigners currently admitted to Korea on E2 visas. As Lee Byung-min, an English education professor at Seoul National University, recently pointed out in The Korea Times, ``We can also choose highly qualified non-native teachers at lower costs as their wages are relatively lower."

It's hardly astute to observe that in all employer-employee relations some tension exists between what the employee desires as remuneration and what the employer is prepared to offer. In the case of employing foreigners, governments around the world, South Korea included, are also critically aware that much of what is paid to foreign workers may leave the country.

The prospect of paying teachers from India lower salaries than other foreign teachers admitted on E2 visas is, therefore, most likely tempting. However, what the South Korean government may wish to offer as compensation, and what serves as fair compensation, will likely be two different amounts.

Arriving at a sum to offer the Indian teachers will therefore most likely be a matter of debate. After all, how does one arrive at a fair amount?

The Korean government has already implemented two programs that hire foreign teachers, the English Program in Korea (EPIK) and Teach and Learn in Korea (TALK). TALK and EPIK can serve as valuable benchmarks for setting the remuneration of the new teachers. If the work that the Indian teachers are expected to perform is similar to the work of EPIK or TALK teachers, they should receive similar remuneration.

All remuneration ― and the government officials tasked with deciding the remuneration to be offered would do well to take note of this ― should follow this basic principle: People who complete equal work should receive equal pay.

That people who complete equal work should receive equal pay rests on the most basic of human rights ― the right to ``dignity" from which stems a sense that all people, everywhere, are, at some fundamental level, equal.

It does not matter that people in India may be willing to sign contracts which offer less remuneration than what is offered to other foreign teachers. What matters is that equality between individuals should be recognized, and the only way that the South Korean government can achieve this is by offering equal pay for equal work, or correspondingly similar pay for similar work.

The South Korean government cannot take advantage of some Indian people's willingness to work for less when it has established guidelines for what it should pay to foreign English teachers.

To violate the principal of ``equal pay for equal work" would amount to a suggestion that somehow, for some reason, Indian labor is not worth as much as labor provided by other foreigners, and also amount to a violation of the new teachers' basic sense of equality, and human dignity. This would be unacceptable.

The South Korean government, which is looking to position itself as a global leader in commerce and politics, is obliged to accept the consequent responsibility of upholding human rights, and must be held to the highest standards.

The writer is a South African who now lives in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province and teaches at an all-boys' middle school. He can be reached at julianbarker45@gmail.com.