Distributional Approach to the Changes in Gender Wage Gap in Korea, 1982～2004.
Economy and Society. Kim Young-Mi (2009)
This study utilizes the relative distribution method developed by Hancock and Morris (1998), and analyzes the process of closing gender wage gap in Korea using “Basic Survey on Wage Structure”, 1982～2004. The gender wage gap in Korea gradually decreased even in the midst of the dramatic increase of wage inequality since the financial crisis in 1997. The analysis of relative distribution between men and women shows that it was the reduction of gender gap in the lowest wage group that has contributed the most to closing gender gap after the financial crisis. Polarization of male wage distribution resulted in the increase of low-wage workers seems to be the main force behind the closing gender wage gap. On the other hand, the analysis of relative distributions by occupational groups reveals that the wage distributions of men and women are converging in lower nonmanual and manual occupations, while diverging in professionals. The gender wage inequality has been rather strengthened at the top since the financial crisis.
Complexity of Gender Inequality in the Segmented Labor Market – Differences in Gender Disadvantage between Regular and Non-regular Sectors
Economy and Society. Kim Young-Mi (2015)
The purpose of this study is to examine distinctive patterns of gender inequality in the primary and secondary labor market in Korea. Previous studies analyzing multiple disadvantages in the labor market tend to focus on comparing the amount of gender wage gap between groups, however their equating the gender gap with discrimination often results in a misleading conclusion underestimating the severe discrimination that women in minority position experience. Using wage gap decomposition method, this study analyzes the gender wage gap among regular workers and non-regular workers separately. The result shows that the size of the gender wage gap is greater in the regular sector, but the sizable amount of the gap can be explained by the compositional difference between male and female workers. On the other hand, among non-regular workers, the gender wage gap is relatively small but most of the gap turns out to be caused by the within-job wage discrimination against women. Such divergent pattern of gender inequality between regular and non-regular workers shows a variation by firm size, and the pattern of ‘larger gap-smaller discrimination’ seems to be most prevalent among the regular workforce in large firms (>300 workers). The result shows how the segmented labor market provides a structural condition to create the complexity of gender inequality, in which women experience different forms of disadvantage depending on their locations in the labor market.
