Last year, the average monthly wage for male workers in small and medium-sized enterprises was found to be up to 1.58 million won higher than that of female workers.
ChosunBiz analyzed the ‘Employment Status Survey by Employment Type’ conducted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 16th, revealing that in 2024, the average monthly wage gap between men and women in corporations with 5 to 9 employees was 1.113 million won. For corporations with 10 to 29 employees, it was 1.286 million won, and for those with 30 to 99 employees, it was 1.585 million won.
In terms of ratio, in corporations with 5 to 9 employees, the average monthly wage for males was 1.4 times greater than that of females, while for corporations with 10 to 29 employees, it was 1.42 times greater, and for those with 30 to 99 employees, it was 1.53 times greater.
In particular, for corporations with 30 to 99 employees, compared to 2024 (1.585 million won) and four years ago in 2020 (1.276 million won), the average monthly wage gap between men and women widened by 309,000 won. The ratio increased from 1.49 in 2020 to 1.53 in 2024. Lee Jae-myung, the president of the Korea Labor Institute, said, “As the size of the corporation increases, salaries also rise, leading to a growing disparity in wages between men and women.”
The background of the wage gap between male and female workers in small and medium-sized enterprises is influenced by various factors, including a tendency for specific occupations and roles to concentrate either males or females, a situation where higher positions are predominantly filled by males, and the structure of female workers experiencing career interruptions after childbirth.
President Lee Jae-myung proposed the ‘Wage Transparency System for Employment Equality’ as a pledge during his presidential candidacy to address the wage gap issue between genders. It is understood that discussions are currently ongoing with government departments, including the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, within the Presidential Committee on Policy Planning. Minister candidate Kang Sun-woo also mentioned the direction for expanding the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family's wage transparency system during a personnel hearing held by the Gender Equality and Family Committee on the 14th.
Currently, large corporations publicly disclose the average wage per capita for men and women through business reports and other documents. The wage transparency system proposed by the president is expected to evolve beyond simply disclosing average wages for men and women to include detailed wage data that compares genders by job category and position. This aims to encourage corporations to improve the wage gap between men and women.
However, in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises, there is a consensus that it is “not easy.” Unlike large corporations, many small and medium-sized enterprises lack a systematic approach to personnel management, making it difficult to accurately identify the factors behind the wage differences between men and women.
A president of a small and medium-sized enterprise said, “In a situation where we hire employees freely regardless of gender, introducing the wage transparency system for employment equality could create a scenario where we have to distinguish between genders and consider wages when hiring,” adding that “there are concerns that this could lead to a tendency not to hire more female employees.”
Another president of a small and medium-sized enterprise noted, “The wage transparency system for employment equality may sequentially be applied starting from large corporations to small ones, similar to the minimum wage system, but we cannot know the actual application situation until we observe it.” He also expressed concern that rising raw material prices and sluggish domestic demand could serve as another cost burden for struggling small and medium-sized enterprises.
Oh Gye-taek, a senior researcher at the Korea Labor Institute, stated, “Establishing and disclosing comparable wage data by job category and position to address the wage gap issue between men and women is the direction our economy and society should head,” adding, “We need to be cautious about moving toward a system where different performances in job roles are compensated with the same wages.” He also emphasized the need to consider the current situation of small and medium-sized enterprises and establish processes to minimize adverse effects by sufficiently listening to their opinions.