Workers Cite Structural Divides as Inequality Deepens Across Korean Labor Market (Image supported by ChatGPT)
SEOUL, Nov. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — A large majority of South Korean workers say the country’s labor market is fundamentally unequal, reflecting long-standing structural divides between large conglomerates and smaller firms, according to new research presented at a major labor conference in Seoul on Tuesday.
The survey, released at the 30th-anniversary forum of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and conducted with Korea University’s Labor Issues Research Institute, found that 79.6 percent of 2,834 respondents believe the labor market is unequal. The findings come as the government and the opposition People Power Party debate a series of labor-market reforms amid rising public concern over economic disparities.
Workers pointed to a shortage of stable jobs and low employment rates as the leading causes of inequality, followed by persistent wage and working-condition gaps between large corporations and small and mid-sized enterprises. Respondents said extending labor law protections to workplaces with fewer than five employees would be the most important step toward easing inequality.
Experts surveyed in a companion study identified the same large-firm–small-firm divide as the core structural problem. Many also cited the expansion of subcontracting, dispatch labor and other forms of nonstandard employment as key contributors to widening disparities.
Policy specialists considered two reforms both necessary and feasible in the near term: applying the Labor Standards Act to businesses with fewer than five workers, and strengthening collective bargaining frameworks across parent companies and subcontractors.
Another study presented at the conference showed inequality is shifting rather than receding. While personal income disparities have slightly eased, household-level income and asset inequality have worsened, driven by the rise of single-person households and the growing tendency of high-income individuals to marry each other.
Since 2016, asset inequality in particular has sharply deepened, creating what researchers described as a polarized “class map” of affluent asset-holders and increasingly precarious households.
FKTU chairman Kim Dong-myeong said the anniversary gathering should serve as a forum for confronting the challenges facing labor organizations and for developing strategies to address entrenched inequality. “We must work together to dismantle this era of inequality and discrimination,” he said.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
