By Kim Jae-heun
Female workers at Seoul City-affiliated public organizations are being paid up to 46 percent less than male workers, the city government admitted Monday. The gender wage gap was wider when the ratio of female workers was low or that of technicians was high.
The admission came after the Seoul Metropolitan Government disclosed the gender wage disparity for 22,361 workers, and regular and non-regular workers, at 22 city-affiliated entities as of 2018.
According to a 2017 OECD report, the average wage for women in Korea was 34.6 percent lower than the average for men.
The city-affiliated organizations showed a gender salary gap, but the gap was relatively smaller than the national average. But the ratios at the Seoul Institute, Seoul Business Agency and Seoul Energy were larger at 46.42 percent, 37.35 percent and 40.99 percent, respectively.
“At the Seoul Institute and Seoul Business Agency, many female workers were non-regular workers, whose salary is low, so this increased the gender wage gap. But many of them obtained regular status between 2017 and 2018,” the city government said in a press release.
“At Seoul Energy, male workers' average period of service was longer than female ones, and women were not tasked with shiftwork ― factors that made men receive a higher salary.”
At the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family, where women take up a large proportion of higher-ranking positions, the average wage for female workers was 31.57 percent higher than their male counterparts'.
The city government said the wage disparity mainly resulted from a lower ratio of female workers among the total workforce and their shorter period of service than men. Of the total workers, only 18 percent were women and their period of service was 7.7 years shorter than men.
Also, at most organizations, the proportion of women in high-ranking positions was low and men dominated technical expert positions in architecture, machinery and engineering.