The average hourly wages of women climbed to about 70 percent of those of men last year. (Image courtesy of Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The average hourly wages of women climbed to about 70 percent of those of men last year, while the gap in employment between men and women has narrowed, a government report showed Wednesday.
The labor and gender equality ministries jointly published the 2023 white paper report on women’s economic activity for the first time in an effort to encourage women to play greater roles in the economy and promote their employment.
According to the report, the average hourly wages of entire female workers, both in regular and non-regular positions, came to 18,113 won (US$14) last year, about 70 percent of men’s average wages of 25,886 won per hour.
The ratio of women’s wages to men’s has been on a steady rise from 64.8 percent in 2012 to 65.9 percent in 2017 and 69.8 percent in 2021. The average monthly wages of women also rose to 2.68 million won last year from 1.81 million won in 2012, according to the report.
The gap between women and men in employment has also narrowed from 22.5 percentage points in 2012 to 18.6 percentage point last year.
The female employment rate has increased every year, excluding the pandemic-stricken 2020 and 2021, and recorded 48.6 percent in 2012 before reaching 52.9 percent in 2022.
In the same period, the employment rate for men showed an uptick of 71.1 percent to 71.5 percent.
However, the gender employment gap widened among those aged 35-39 as many women quit their jobs for child care, recording an over 30 percentage point gap between men and women.
Last year, a total of 1.397 million women were recorded to have suffered a career beak, due mainly to child-rearing or marriage, a 3.5 percent drop year-on-year.
Meanwhile, the number of women who said they are not economically active has declined since 2020, recording over 10.4 million, with the majority, or 55 percent of them, citing the heavy burden of house chores. Those who said they were staying at home without a job leaped by 218,000 people compared to 2012, reaching up to 492,000 last year.
(Yonhap)
