| kwwa |
2002-10-28 15:02:53, 조회 : 434 |
The Equal Pay Principle and related Policy Issues in Korea / by Taehong Kim
/ KWDI Research Reports/Women's Studies Forum, Vol.10/December 1994
*This paper is the condensation of the '93 Research Report 200-10 by the
KWDI research team Kim Tae-hong and Yang Seung-joo.
Kim Tae-hong(Senior Researcher, KWDI)
I. INTRODUCTION
The principle of equal pay for equal work was introduced in Korean
through the Equal Employment Opportunity Act which was amended in 1989. The
principle stipulates that an employer shall not discriminate against
employees by gender in pay or wages if their work is of equal value. The
effective implementation of the principle is closely related to a company's
pay system, wage bargaining structure, labor relations, implementing body,
and procedures to enforce the principle, etc. However, since the pay system
in Korea is different from that of other countries, there are problems in
the de facto application of the principle in Korea. In this paper, the
present systems of pay management in companies and implementation of the
equal pay principle in Korea are reviewed. And policy issues and
countermeasures to enhance effectiveness of the principle are discussed.
II. THE EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY ACT AND EQUAL PAY
1. History of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act
The concepts concerning the equal rights of both sexes in employment were
clearly materialized in the Labor Standard Act enacted in 1953. According
to Article 5 of the Act, an employer shall not discriminate against the
labor conditions of workers by the reasons of gender, nationality,
religion, the social status, etc. Violation of the law results in
nullifying the labor contract between workers and an employer and he is
also fined an amount not exceeding US $6,250(5 million Korean Won) (amended
Jan. 13, 1990).
However, because Article 5 of the Act has remained virtually a dead
letter due to the habitual discrimination prevailing in companies, the
equal pay principle has not been realized in Korea. Since the enforcement
of the Labor Standard Act has not been sufficient to eliminate the habitual
discrimination against employees by gender, women's organizations have
requested the enactment of the Equal Employment Opportunity as a new
special law. In response to this request, the Democratic Justice Party
presented the bill before the Parliament at the end of 1986, one year
before the Presidential Election. The bill was passed by the Parliament in
October 1987 and became effective as of April 1, 1988. During this process,
the law, which was copied in part from the Equal Employment Opportunity Act
of Japan, was not fully examined and discussed so that clauses regarding
the equal pay principle were not included in the law. Since then, the
desire to include such clauses has been clearly expressed by an activated
labor union movement and in particular by the active participation of
female union members in the movement. Recognizing the pressures of public
opinion for the enactment of the equal pay for equal work principle, the
Parliament passed an epoch-making reform bill on March 29, 1989. At last,
the clauses regarding equal pay principle were included in Paragraph 2 of
Article 6 of the amended Equal Employment Opportunity Act.
2. The Law's Coverage and Limitations
According to Article 3 of the law, all businesses or establishments with
5 or more regular workers are affected by the Equal Employment Opportunity
Act, that is, the same as in the Labor Standard Act, except those
businesses or establishments designated by a Presidential Decree. For
example, civil servants are not covered by the law. However, civil servants
engaged in simple manual jobs can be covered by the law within the
permitted limit of the laws and regulations for civil servants. Public
education servants are not covered by the law, whereas teachers working for
private educational facilities can be covered in the permitted limit of
laws for private education. Korean employees of foreign companies and of
the American Forces in Korea are also covered by the law.
The equal pay principle can be the most easily enforced if it is applied
within an establishment. To judge whether the job of the sexes is of the
value, criterion such as skill, physical and mental effort, responsibility
and working conditions are generally used. But the above mentioned
standards should be compared and evaluated within the establishment. The
equal pay for equal work principle can easily be applied to the job of both
men and women if they engage in same kind of work, whereas it is difficult
to judge whether they do equal value work if they engage in different kinds
of work. When labor market is divided into male dominated jobs, the best
way to judge whether their work is of equal value is to depend on the
method of job evaluation mentioned frequently in international comparative
studies.
If the equal pay principle is applied only within an establishment where
male dominated work is segregated from female dominated work, it may be
difficult to find male jobs which can be matched to female jobs for the
purpose of comparison by gender. Even if male and female work can be
matched, comparison by gender may be possible only through a job
evaluation, costs for the evaluation and lack of fairness in the job
evaluation can become problems. For this reason, many researchers insist
that the scope of job comparison for application of the equal pay principle
should extend all the jobs in the same kind of business or industry.
Actually, however, there may be disparities in the salary or wage levels
within the same kind of business or industry. This disparity may be caused
by the differences in the characteristics of companies, for example,
gender, profit rates, capital-equipment ratios, labor productivity, degree
of market concentration, etc., though companies may be involved in the same
kind of business or industry. Therefore, without allowing for salary and
wage differences due to the above mentioned factors, it may not be
realistic to extend the wage bargaining pattern in company level to
industrial bargaining system. Collective bargaining by the within the same
kind of business or industry is possible only when the following conditions
are satisfied : 1) the working conditions including wages and salaries
should be similar, 2) a bargaining organization which is responsible for
the collective bargaining should be formed, and 3) a mutual understanding
between labor and management should exist.
Therefore, the transition to a wage bargaining system may be possible
when the above mentioned prerequisites are satisfied. Since comparison of
jobs by gender is closely related to the bargaining structure, the
comparison should be conducted within an establishment in this situation.
However, some kinds of businesses or industries, such as the cotton
spinning business, the raw silk business, and the bus/taxi business, have
already expanded the comparison scopes for collective bargaining from
individual establishments to businesses or industries of same kind as that
of the individual establishment.
This collective bargaining by the same kind of businesses or industries
are possible because factors such as management style, ability to pay, and
working conditions within the same kind of businesses are similar. In this
sense, it is desirable to expand the comparison scopes if collective
bargaining within the same kind of business or industry is to be possible
in the future.
3. Definitions of wages and Equal Work
A. Definition of Wages
While the Equal Employment Opportunity Act stipulates the equal pay for
equal work principle, the wages to be allocated under the "equal pay
principle"are not clearly defined in the law. However, though the Equal
Employment Opportunity Act is a special law of the Labor Standard Act, the
regulations of wages in the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.
According to Article 18 of the Labor Standard Act, wages are defined as
"money paid to workers by an employer to compensate for the worker's
labor." In this sense, the wages allocated under the equal pay principle
include regular and special payments. In this, special payment include
retirement allowances, allowances to the compensate for price increases,
allowances for commuting, family allowances, year-end allowances, weekly,
monthly, and yearly allowances, medical insurance fees, food allowances,
holiday allowances, and allowances for housing, etc. However, the following
are excluded from the legal wages; that is, expenses for congratulations
and condolences, allowance for dismissal, accident compensation, and
welfare facility fees. The definition of wages in Korea is similar to that
which is recommended by international organizations for the application of
the equal pay principle.
B. Definition of Equal Work
According t 2of Paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Act, standards for job evaluation to judge equal value work are
defined as four factors-skill, effort, responsibility, and working
conditions which workers require to accomplish their jobs. In Article 5 of
the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of the Ministry of Labor, the concept
of the equal value work is stipulated, equal value work can be understood
as work which has the same or similar value regardless of the gender of the
worker. Or if the tasks of the two genders are considered to be different,
equal value work can be understood as a task in itself if it is recognized
as the same value work through hob evaluation. And, in this, "skill,
effort, responsibility, and working conditions" are related to the job
contents tasks required for job accomplishment. In detail, 1)skill can be
evaluated by objective levels of capability or skill to accomplish the job,
such as license, acquired experience, etc.; 2) effort refers the physical
and mental forces necessary for the accomplishment of the job;3)
responsibility refers to the internal factors in a task or to the
dependence of the employer on the task; and 4)the working conditions refer
to the workplace environment, such as noise, heat, physical or chemical
risk level, etc. Furthermore, to determine whether the work, is an equal
value work characteristics such as the workers educational attainments,
work experiences, and years of continuous service should be considered in a
comprehensive way in addition to the 4 criteria which are mentioned in the
2 of Paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.
In this sense, the equal value work defined in the Korean law could be
understood as a very wide concept which may include identical work, similar
work, and equal value work.
C. Equal Value Work and Job Evaluation
To concretize down the equal pay of equal value work principle stipulated
in the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, an objective and rational job
evaluation system should be introduced. According to the law, to determine
whether the job between men and women is an equal value work, the 4 factors
-skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions- and other factors
should be comprehensively considered. In the process of job evaluation, one
of the most important things to consider is how to measure and evaluate
work by using these factors and, furthermore, how to assign weights to the
factors and how to combine them. That is, the formulation of a set of
criteria and methods of evaluation to access equal value work is a major
concern in job evaluation.
The majority of companies in other countries have their own wage systems
which are usually based on job evaluations where the criteria and methods
for the evaluation of equal value work are established through extensive
experience with job analyses and job evaluations. Of course, western
capitalistic societies may also experience difficulties in job evaluation
in spite of their extensive experience in job evaluation.
The difficulties are mainly due to by the fact that the values of the
evaluators, sexual prejudice, the selection of evaluation factors and the
weights assigned to factors may prevent fair job evaluation. For this
reason, systematic and unified job evaluation where the criteria and
evaluation the weights assigned to factors may prevent fair job evaluation
system is not fully developed in Korea because like Japan, the seniority
wage system, where seniority may be a more important factor in determining
wages than a job-related wage system, is prevalent. Because the equal value
evaluation system and the job evaluation system are not consistent with
each other in the application of the equal pay principle, job analysis and
job evaluation may be introduced not for the purpose of comparison of the
value of men's and women's work but for the purpose of wage management or
manpower management.
In this sense, scholars may take different positions in interpreting of
the Item 2, Paragraph 2, Article 6 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.
First of all, according to realistic interpretation, they argue that the
four criteria-skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions-are
examples of many other criteria which could be included in the job
evaluation when considering the Korean situation. In this sense,
satisfaction of the above 4 criteria is not only the requisite for equal
value work. With this kind of interpretation, Lee(1989) argued that as long
as the wage determining factors are applied equally to both male female
work, there is no gender wage discrimination. In contrast to this point of
view, others argue that the items described in the law include the standard
job evaluation factors which are related to job duties, since the
comparison of equal value work by gender should be done by comparing the
job's characteristics and the level of difficulties required for job's
accomplishment.
D. Legal Wage Disparities
The Ministry of Labor enacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Regulation
to provide terms which are necessary for equal opportunity in employment
for both men and women. Based on the terms of equal pay for equal work
expressed in Article 5 of the Regulation, those cases which violate the
equal pay for equal work principle as stipulate in Item2, Article 6 of the
Equal Employment Opportunity Act are listed as follows.
First, women in general are considered to be secondary earners in
households. For this reason, employers tend to pay female workers less in
comparison to their male counterparts who engage in the same kind of work.
Second, regardless of the quality or quantity of the labor, employers tend
to pay female workers less than their male counterparts in the welfare
related allowances such as family allowances, allowances for education,
commuting allowances, allowances for making winter pickles, etc. Third,
employers tend to apply different criteria by gender when he determines an
employee's grade or promotion, which results in discrimination against
wages by gender. Fourth, women tend to receive lower wages because
employers may think that more costs are related to women than men for the
former's maternal privileges. Fifth, wages for equal value work may be paid
unequally by gender without any rational reason.
The following cases are not considered to be discrimination in the wage
system. First though male and female workers undertake the same or similar
kind of works in an establishment, the wages may be paid unequally by
gender if the wages are determined according to objective and rational
service, job ranks, etc. Second, the wages by gender may be decided
unequally if they are determined according to the job evaluation or
capability of workers, when the differences in capability or achievements
can be identified by objective and rational criteria.
However, it is not easy to determine whether the real differences in
wages by gender are based on rational reason or on sex discrimination. If
an employer cannot prove his fairness in determining wages by gender, they
are judged to be determined by sex discrimination. This means that the
different levels of wages based on rational factors other than gender are
not illegal discrimination.
III. WAGE MANAGEMENT AND WAGE DISCRIMINATION
Implementation of the equal for equal work principle os closely related
to the Remuneration management policies in a company. In particular, since
most wage systems in Korea are not based on job analyses or job
evaluations, applications of the principle is limited. The majority of
companies in Korea have adopted a seniority based wage system. Only foreign
companies, foreign investment companies, and some domestic companies have
adopted the job-duty based wage system for production workers. But almost
no Korean company has adopted job related wage system. the seniority based
wage system, which is the prevailing system in Korea, is defined as a wage
determining system based on characteristics, such as educational
attainment, age, years of continuous service, sex, etc. The majority of the
companies surveyed adopted the equal pay principle when the worker's level
of education was the same. The following cases of wage discrimination by
gender have been observed in the surveyed companies.
1. Starting Grade and Salary
The ranks and grades of new workers are directly related to the levels of
wages. Therefore, gender differences in starting ranks and grades for those
with equal levels of education cause wage disparities by gender. These wage
disparities cannot be narrowed with years of continuous service if the
promotions are slower for female workers than for their male counterparts.
Of course, to determine whether the wage disparities are caused by gender
bias requires close examination of a company's wage management policies and
manpower management policies regarding not only the new worker's positions
but also the gender differences in the actual and potential productivity of
the new workers. However, considering that the majority of Korean companies
practice a seniority based wage system, the company may not depend on an
objective job analysis or job evaluation but on ascribed qualifications
such as educational attainment to determine the starting salary. The
existence of separated wage tables by gender for equally educated workers
reveals the sexual discrimination in the company.
Therefore, in this research a case study was conducted to find out how
companies in Korea set starting rank and grade according to educational
attainment and sex. The analysis was done in 33 companies which utilized a
seniority based wage system. But because many companies add grades to the
men's starting grade if they have had military experience men with no
military experience were selected for comparative purposes.
First of all, concerning clerks with college level education, a great
number of companies did not recruit female workers with college degrees.
Therefore, there are no wage tables available for them. Among 23 companies
in which female college graduates were recruited, only 7 provided equal
starting salaries by gender and the remaining 16 provided different
starting salaries by gender. Out of the 16 companies, 10 assigned different
starting grades for women and the remaining 6 companies assigned equal
ranks but different grades by gender. Similar patterns could be found for
clerks with a junior choose level of education. The companies where equal
starting salaries were given to male and female workers with college level
education also gave equal starting salaries for the junior college
graduates. Companies which gave different starting salaries for college
educated workers by gender also gave different starting salaries for junior
college graduates.
However, this policy was not applied to high-school graduates. In this
study, the starting salaries for clerks and production workers by gender
were analyzed for 31 companies where both male and female high-school
graduated workers were recruited. Only 4 companies assigned equal grades
for them, while the remaining 27 companies assigned different grades. Out
of the 27 companies, 20 assigned different starting grades and ranks for
male and female workers, though they have equal educational attainments.
And 7 companies assigned the same rank but different grades by gender. For
production workers with a high school level of educational in the 31
companies, only 3 assigned equal rank while the remaining 28 companies
assigned different ranks by gender. Out of the 28 companies, 16 assigned
different ranks and 12 assigned the same rank but different grades by
gender.
According to the findings in the above case studies, a great number of
companies in Korea assigned different ranks by gender for workers with
equal educational attainments. In particular, for workers with high school
education, the majority of companies assigned different ranks by gender.
When asked why different ranks or grades were assigned to workers with
equal educational attainment, the majority of representatives of labor
unions or wage management managers responded saying that the job cuties for
male and female workers are different.
This study of starting positions by gender reveals that the majority of
production workers with high school education engaged in different job
duties by gender, while the majority of clerks with high school education
engaged in almost the same job duties by gender, implying that their
reasons for being assigned different ranks for similar job duties by gender
may have no rational ground. In addition to this, though male and female
workers may perform different job duties, a great proportion of the
differences in starting salaries by gender si caused by sex discrimination
because the majority of the companies which different ranks or grades by
gender did not determine the starting salary based on a job analysis or
evaluation.
2. Elimination of Wage Discrimination and Burdens of Labor Costs
The majority of the companies studied which have adopted a seniority
based wage system tend to determine the starting salary by personal
characteristics. The equal pay principle in companies in Korea, hence, can
be defined more realistically as equal pay for equal seniority rather than
equal pay for work(Of course, for companies which have adopted job based
wage system or job ability wage system, the equal pay for equal work or the
equal pay for equal ability policies should be applied in the companies,
respectively). In eliminating wage discrimination by gender under the equal
pay principle, additional labor costs are inevitable to the company within
the present wage structure. In this sense, the additional labor costs which
may be burdened some for a company are estimated through the computation of
the differences in the starting salary so as to provide basic data for
policy formulation.
Actually the increased labor costs caused by elimination of differences
in the starting salaries by gender are greater than the starting salary
differences multiplied by the number of workers with equal educational
attainments, because the adjustments of the starting salaries lead
inevitably to the adjustment of the wages of workers who, in particular,
have more years of continuous service. The differences in the starting
salaries of workers by levels of education are shown in [Table 1]. As can
be seen from the table, to eliminate wage discrimination by gender, the
starting salary for women should increase by the amount of US $50.00-$87.00
(40 to 70 thousand Korea Won). By level of education, more money should be
paid to those with less education.
By number of workers, more money should be paid for companies with fewer
workers so as to remove the differences in the starting salaries by gender.
This implies that the additional labor costs for implementation of Ministry
of Labor policy is to resort to administrative orders first and then to
judicial litigation for companies which violate the principle by the number
of workers. This procedure enhances the efficiency of the principle and
lessens the labor costs for the company.
[Table 1] Difference in Starting Salaries Between Male and Female Workers
by Size of Company and Level of Educational Attainment
unit: thousand Korean won
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
299 or less 300-999 1,000 or more Total
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
College Graduates 67.5 68.1 29.8 51.2
Junior College Graduates 55.7 63.0 7.0 46.2
High School, Clerks 79.6 68.8 41.0 61.0
High School, Production 56.6 77.9 59.9 65.8
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV. PRESENT STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EQUAL PAY PRINCIPLE BY
RESPONSIBLE ORGANIZATIONS
As in other countries, there are administrative organizations and
procedures, judicial organizations and procedures, and labor/management
autonomous organizations and procedures for implementing the equal pay for
equal work principle in Korea. The administrative organizations and
procedures for elimination of wage discrimination by gender are the
Employment Problem Mediation Committee and Labor Inspection Administrative
Organizations which deal with gender discrimination problems in a
professional way. The judicial organizations are the courts. Finally, the
organizations and procedures for autonomous implementation of the equal pay
for equal work principle through labor/management relations are : 1)
appeals to employer for settlement of the wage disparities by females who
are discriminated against or by a labor union(In this case, the employer
can request The Services of the Complaint Settlement Service within his
establishment); 2) appeals to Grievance Committee members who are assigned
by the Labor/Management Relations Act; and 3) resolution of the problem by
collective bargaining(See [Figure 1]).
1. Results Achieved by Administrative Organizations
The administrative organizations which are responsible for the
implementation of the equal pay for equal work principles in Korea are: 1)
local labor offices established by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act; 2)
the labor inspection system, as a professional administrative organization
to supervise the company's implementation of the Labor Standards Act and to
prompt rapid action to protect workers' rights; and 3) the Employment
Problem Mediation Committee, as a specially established administrative
organization by the enactment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, for
the investigation and resolution of disputes regarding sex discrimination
and maternal protection. Of course, in addition to these implementing
organizations, there are methods to resolve disputes by depending on
prosecuting attorneys. However, this method is not dealt with in this paper
since the attorneys' main responsibility does not involve disputes over
gender-related wage disparities.
[Figure 1] The Procedures for Settlement of Wage Disparity in Korea
+----------+ +------------------------+
+----+ Employer +--------]+ Complaint Settlement +-]②, ③
| +----------+ | Service |
| +------------------------+
| +-----------------------+
① | | Grievance Committee +-]②, ③
+-+----+ Members |
| | +-----------------------+
| | +-----------------------+
| +----+ Collective Bargaining +-]②, ③
| +-----------------------+
|
| +---------------------+
| +--------------------+ | Employment Problem |
| ②-a ++ Local Labor Office +]+ Mediation Committee |②-b,③
| +----++--------------------+ +---------------------+
| | |+-------------------+
Female |②| ++ Labor Inspector |-]②-b, ③
Workers | | +-------------------+
Labor | |②-b +----------------------+
Union | +-----+ Prosecuting Authority|-]③
| +----------------------+
| ③ +------------------+
+--------+ Court |
+------------------+
Note: 1) ① labor management autonomous resolution procedure
② administrative resolution procedures
③ judicial resolution procedures
2) the procedure can be implemented regardless of the order of ①,②,③
3) the arrow refers to a request.
A. Labor Administrative Organizations
If violations of Article 5 of the Labor Standards Act, i.e., the
principle of equal treatment by gender, occur in an establishment, the
workers can make legal petitions, indictments, or accusations by written,
verbal, or other methods to the labor inspectors who are working in a local
labor office or in the Ministry of Labor. Based on the legal petitions,
indictments, or accusations, the labor inspector should investigate the
establishment immediately to expose any violations, like detectives in a
crime case. However, if the workers make an accusation, the inspector
should refer the mediation of the dispute to the Employment Problem
Mediation Committee. If the inspector finds any violations after
investigation of the dispute, he should request the employer to correct the
violation. If the violations are not corrected, the case can be brought to
the prosecuting attorneys. According to the manual of the labor inspectors,
they should finish the investigation within 2 months for an indictment or
accusation and within 20 days for other cases. If the labor inspector
discovers any gender discrimination in the process of supervision, he
should make an administrative order for correction of the discrimination.
If the case is not corrected within 20 days, 10 more days may be allowed
for the correction. If no corrections are made in an establishment, the
case should be sent to the prosecuting attorneys.
After the promulgation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, out of
4,892 cases of violation detected by labor inspectors, 4,886 cases were
corrected during 1988 to third quarter of 1992. Only 4 cases were sent to
judicial authorities. Out of these 4, one case occurred in 1989, two in
1990, and one in 1991. The types of violation which occurred from 1988 to
third quarter of 1992 reveal that cases of retirement or dismissal are most
frequently observed (1,985 cases), followed by 1,484 cases involving leave
for child bearing, 290 cases involving recruitment, and 133 wage dispute
cases. The number of cases related to violations of wages and recruitment
are increasing.
From April 10, 1993, there has been a policy of strong restrictions on
banks which fail to correct wage discrimination by gender. Because of this
strong policy enforcement, 42,000 existing female bank workers were adopted
same job position with comparable male workers. The wage table for female
workers was different from that for comparable male workers. But now the
wage table and the wage management system in the banks have also been
unified. Because of this, female workers may have an additional US $12.50
to $125.00(10,000 to 100,000Won) in their regular monthly pay. The Ministry
of Labor has eliminated gender discrimination through administrative
guidance in 29 out of 34 banks in Korea. The excluded 4 banks are the Korea
Longterm Credit Bank, Hana Bank, Hanmi Bank, and Korea Peace Bank because
there has been no female bank worker system from their establishment. And
the Ministry has played a significant role in guiding and supervising 105
second level banks and 30 conglomerates through the labor inspector system.
As of March 1993, the present status of gender discrimination in an
establishment reveals that 38 companies(29 second level banks and 9 out of
30 conglomerates) have already corrected their gender discrimination, but
the remaining 82 companies have still not corrected it. The types of
violations of the 82 uncorrected companies reveal that 70 companies(58
second level banks and 12 out of 30 conglomerates) practiced grade and wage
discrimination. 16 companies practiced promotion related discrimination(all
second level banks), 1 out of 30 conglomerates practiced discrimination in
retirement, 54 companies discriminated in leave for child bearing and
rearing, and 49 companies discriminated in recruitment. Along with this, by
December 1993, the Ministry of Labor strengthened the administrative
guidance in 1,161 establishments with 500 or more workers, and 1,045
establishments with 300-499 workers were ordered to correct gender
discrimination through self-inspection by March 1994. For the uncorrected
establishments by that date, the administrative guidance would be
strengthened beginning April 1994.
As mentioned earlier, most of the administrative guidance and judicial
treatment for the elimination of wage disparities by gender are conducted
by labor inspectors. However, labor inspectors are responsible for many
things, including the problems of gender employment equality. And also,
there is an insufficient number of inspectors compared to their to their
responsibilities in supervising all of the companies. If the policy is
changed or other problems emerge, the ability to guide to and supervise the
enforcement of the equal pay principle can be resolved by increasing the
number of labor inspectors, particularly female inspectors, or by flexible
management of inspectors based on the medium and longterm labor policy
plan. However, since labor inspectors do not have exclusive
responsibilities for inspecting and resolving cases of wage disparities by
gender, there may be limitations in dealing with the problems of wage
disparities by gender if the gender discrimination in wages occurs the
complex context of job duties or an ability based wage system.
B. The Employment Problem Mediation Committee
The mediation of labor disputes by the Employment Problem Mediation
Committee, including the elimination of gender discrimination, is regulated
by Item 1 of Article 12 of the Enforcement Ordinance. The committee's work
starts upon receiving a request for mediation from the head of the local
labor office in the following types of cases:(1) if there are requests for
mediation from one party or both parties of the dispute (Item 1);(2) if
concerned persons do not accept the consultation, guidance, or
recommendations of the head of the local labor office(Item 2); and (3) if
the head of the local labor office recognizes the necessity of the
committee's mediation(Item 3). If the committee receives a request from one
party or both parties to resolve the dispute, the head of the local labor
office should finish the committee's mediation within 10 days. And the
concerned parties can cancel part or all of the request in written form at
any time before the mediation plans are prepared.
If mediation is requested, the committee can order an investigation of
the case(Article 15 of the Enforcement Ordinance), request the concerned
party or administrative body to attend a meeting or submit related
information, and provide other forms of cooperation(Article 18). The
committee may also hear the opinion of experts who have knowledge and
experience in the relevant field (Article 20) and hold a committee
meeting(Article 16 of the Enforcement Ordinance). Through this process, the
committee should prepare the mediation plans within 30 days and recommend
the concerned parties accept the mediation plans(Article 18).
The concerned persons or organizations may have the right not to accept
the mediation plans. If one party of the dispute does not accept the
mediation plans, then they have no effect. In this case, the concerned
persons or organizations should seek another method to resolve the dispute.
If the mediation plans are accepted by the concerned persons or
organization, the committee should prepare a mediation report. A labor
contract which does not fulfill the criteria of the mediation report, for
example, in relation to working conditions, can be nullified in the related
parts of the contract. These nullified parts are determined by the criteria
which are set by the mediation report(Article 18). Regardless of the
success or failure of the mediation, the chairman of the committee should
report to the head of the local labor office. Based on this, the head of
the local labor office deploys labor inspectors to investigate whether
there are violations of relevant laws or regulations. If the inspectors
find violations, then the inspectors can give orders to correct them
immediately. If there is no correction within the predetermined time
period, the case should be sent to the prosecuting attorneys. Then if the
petitioner wants to resolve the dispute to get her former position back or
to get compensation for damages, a civil suit should be filed. If the
concerned persons or organizations accept the mediation plan, then they
must sign the mediation report.
Only 2 cases(① a retirement case in the Herbal Medical Hospital of
Taejon University due to marriage, mediated by Taejon Employment Problem
Mediation Committee on April 18, 1990, and ② an illegal dismissal case in
the office of Shin Hyun Apartment case due to marriage mediated by Inchon
Employment Problem Mediation Committee on July 12, 1991) have been resolved
by accepting the mediation plans of the Employment Problem Mediation
Committee. Another 2 cases were dropped by female workers because of a
labor management addition to this, 4 cases have been resolved by persuading
the employers during the process of investigation by the committee members.
2. Results Achieved by Judicial Organization
After the implementation of the Equal Pay Act in 1988, only 4 cases have
been resolved by juridical procedures(civil suits). And out of these 4
cases, only one case with Yonsei University involved a civil suit. Two
cases with Citizens National Bank and Hanyang University were turned down.
Finally, the case of Doosan involved discrimination in wages by gender such
that the wages of a college graduate female worker who worked continuously
for more than 10 years were much less than the starting salary of a college
graduate male worker. Another reason for the Doosan was that the female
worker was not paid a continuous service allowance. However, the Female
worker did not bring a civil suit to obtain equal wages but to nullify her
dismissal.
The resolution of cases by depending on civil suits is related to the
costs for consulting experts, like attorneys, and time. However, since
there is no financial assistance in Korea for law suits, unlike many other
countries, law suits are utilized in limited way. In addition, it should be
emphasized that many of the accused have dropped their suits in the middle
of the juridical process. The background of the 2 dropped cases mentioned
above is that the suits became controversial issues in the labor union or
the employers showed a willingness to agree implicitly to resolve them.
This fact suggests that leaders or members of the labor union, particularly
the male members, may perceive wage discrimination by gender as a minor
issue. However, the suit itself may have a major impact not only on the
concerned company but also on other companies in the same kind of industry.
For example, the impact of the Citizens National Bank case has been so
great that gender discrimination in wages has been almost eliminated not
only in this bank but also in other banks in Korea, though the suit was
resolved by administrative arrangement.
3. Results achieved by Autonomous Organization
Wage discrimination by gender may occur directly discrimination in the
wage management system and indirectly by discrimination in the personnel
management, such as, in placement or promotion. However, management
information in companies regarding the wage discrimination system is
usually not open to the public. Generally, labor unions may have more
knowledge about wage management problems within a company. Therefore, the
more complex a company's wage system or personnel management system, the
more effective is an autonomous organization, such as labor union, in
resolving wage discrimination disputes.
In Korea, it is unknown how many cases are resolved by an employer or by
a Grievance Committee on behalf of female workers who make requests
directly to employers in verbal or written form about cases of wage
discrimination by gender. If cases are resolved, the number is expected to
be very small. Another method to resolve such cases are to appeal the
gender discrimination in verbal or written form to a Grievance Committee or
to appeal directly or indirectly to the collective bargaining procedures in
an establishment which has a labor union. Several cases involving the Bank
of Korea, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Daerim Engineering,
etc. have been reported as successful cases in eliminating wage
discrimination or discriminatory personnel management systems through labor
and management agreement.
V. POLICY ISSUES TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY
As mentioned earlier, the equal pay for equal work principle is not fully
implemented in Korea. In this section, the following policy issues to
enhance the efficiency of the equal pay principle are discussed : the wage
system, present conditions involving the implementation of the equal pay
principle, and the implementing bodies. The best way to eliminate problems
of discrimination against wages by gender is to resolve them through
autonomous labor relations. However, in the Korean situation, the
government should play a pioneering role and at the same time, companies,
individual worker, labor unions, women's organizations, etc. should also
actively participate in the resolution of such cases.
1. Realistic Methods to Compare Equal Value Work
A. Realistic Methods to Compare Equal Value Work
Altogether 90.1 percent of companies adopt seniority-based wage system in
Korea. However, as Korean society has been shifting from a low wage, low
technique, and high economic growth society to high wages, high techniques,
and low economic growth society, the wage system in companies are also
shifting, or will shift, from a seniority-based wage system to ability
based and/or job duty based wage system. Following these changes, if the
wage systems of many companies shifts from the seniority based wage system
to job-duty or ability based wage system, the job duty or ability as a
reference criteria for the evaluation of equal value work will be adopted.
This shift in the wage systems of companies in Korea will occur eventually,
even if it has not occurred at the present time. However, in the near
future, wage systems in Korea are expected to shift, not to the job duty
based wage system, but to the ability based wage system with some
characteristics of a seniority based wage system. Since the basic principle
of the ability based wage system is equal pay for equal ability, it is
contradictory to principle of the result, the principle of equal pay for
equal work may come to lack reality.
Therefore, to develop realistic criteria for the evaluation of the equal
pay for equal work principle, the criteria for determining wages in a
company should be used as criteria for determining the equal pay for equal
work, that is, equal pay for equal seniority and for equal ability. And the
legal criteria for the principle should be "skills, efforts,
responsibilities, and working conditions, etc." as stipulated by the
Ministry of Labor. Of course, in companies where a job duty based wage
system is adopted or will be adopted in the future or where they could not
find comparable male groups due to severe job segregation, the value of
work should be compared based on job analysis and job evaluation. During
the evaluation process, gender prejudice should not be excluded.
B. The Comparative Scopes of Labor
Considering that there are great wage disparities by kinds of companies,
by industries, and by sizes of companies, the expanded application of the
comparative scopes may cause great confusion. And even though the wage
bargaining system is shifted from company-level to industrial-level system,
the wage disparities by firm and company may not cause major problems
because not the level of wages themselves but the increasing rate or
increasing amount of wages is determined in wage bargaining. However, since
application of the equal pay for equal work principle is related to the
level of wages itself, the wage disparities by company and by size of
company may became great constraints.
Therefore, based on this present situation, it is more realistic to
confine the range of comparison within an establishment rather than to
expand it to the kind of industry. However, where collective bargaining is
possible in a region or within the same kind of industry, it is better to
have exceptions in regulations for the comparative ranges which can be
expanded to the same kind of industry.
C. Making an Environment for Job Analysis and Job Evaluation
In implementing the equal pay for equal work principle, there may be some
cases that work done by male and female workers are comparable only by the
evaluation of job duties. In this case, an environment for conduction job
analysis and job evaluation should be established. That is, employees,
employers, and the government should provide standard job analysis and job
evaluation models for industries where female dominated jobs(i.e., nurses,
cashiers, telephone or telegram operators, etc.) prevail. The models should
be used in jobs where there are many establishments in which to apply the
principle.
Though standard job analysis and job evaluation models are provided, no
individual company may apply the model if no compulsory laws exist
requiring the job evaluation only for some specific companies in the
professional worker's association such as the Nurses Association, laborer's
associations such as industrial association of labor unions or Federation
of Korea Trade Unions, and employers association. The impact of job
evaluation may be great, though such evaluations may not be easily
applicable to individual companies.
Members of the labor union should participate in a company's job
evaluation process. However, the members of the job evaluation committee
generally consist of males only. For this reason, the possibility of a
relatively low evaluation of women's work can be found in this process.
Therefore, in companies which want to conduct job evaluations to introduce
both the equal pay for equal work principle and the job duty based wage
system, a predetermined number of women as representatives of the female
workers should participate in the job evaluation committee. Also, it is
necessary to support the female representatives by consulting job
evaluation expert who are involved in labor organizations or women's
organizations.
2. Fairness and Objectiveness in Wages and Personnel Management
A. Inducement to Open and Objective Wage System
In the practical application of the equal pay for equal work principle,
it is difficult to find wage discrimination by gender if the wage
management system of a company is not objective and open to workers. A
great number of companies in Korea have wage tables which mention only
starting salary. Some companies do not have any wage table at all. Some
company do not open the wage table to workers. Even if wage related
information is given to the labor union in a company, the information is
usually confined to the employees's wages only. For this reason, the
information about the wage management system for general workers or labor
union members is generally limited in nature. Therefore, the government and
worker's association should induce the company to maintain a wage table if
the company does not have one or if the company has one for only starting
salaries. If a company has a wage table but does not open the table to
workers, the government and worker's association should induce the company
to open the wage table and the wage management system to workers.
B. Elimination of Discriminatory Wage Systems
As can be seen from the case studies mentioned earlier, a great number of
companies, have adopted a seniority based wage system and have applied
different starting salaries and grades for male and female workers even if
they have equal seniority. In addition to this, there is a tendency to
widen the wage disparities between male and female workers when their years
of continuous service increase.
For this reason, in companies where a seniority based wage system is
adopted but the starting salaries between male and female workers of equal
seniority are different without any rational reason, the government's
guidance, inspection, and supervision should be strengthened to eliminate
such wage discrimination by gender. For those companies which have some
forms of discriminatory wage systems by gender, the wage table in the
companies should be amended to eliminate the discrimination in wages. To do
this, guidance and inspection by government and social organizations should
be strengthened. For production workers, greatly different job duties are
conducted by gender and the majority of female workers receive lower wages
than their male counterparts. However, these low wages are not based on any
scientific and objective reasons. Therefore, to provide objective criteria
for the elimination of wage disparities by gender, job analysis and job
evaluation should be conducted by all participants in the labor,
management, and government sides.
3. Strengthening and Enhancing the Efficiency of Implementing
Organizations
A. Autonomous Provision of Improvement Plans
In implementing the equal pay principle, it is most desirable to
implement the principle autonomously by a labor/management agreement within
a company. In Korea, the methods utilized to eliminate wage disparities by
gender are:1) eliminating the discrimination by employers themselves; 2)
reliance on the Complaint Settlement Service ; 3) reliance on the Grievance
Committee; or 4) labor/management bargaining. However, these methods,
except for labor/management bargaining, depend on the willingness of
employers to eliminate the discrimination, meaning that the methods may be
less effective. The proportion of organized female labor unions is low,
both in absolute terms and in relative terms. As a result, to make wage
discrimination by gender a subject in a meeting is difficult because the
organizational strength of the female labor union is weak. And even in a
labor union where the participation rate of female union members is high or
where the majority adopt the wage disparities by gender as a subject in the
collective bargaining.
Therefore, to enhance ist efficiency, female workers should actively
participate in their labor unions. In addition, the labor unions should
have a better understanding of the problems of wage disparities by gender.
Furthermore, the labor unions or women's organization should actively
educate female union members or female workers about the nature of
discrimination in employment by gender. And the worker should actively
participate in the educational program.
B. Strengthening the Role of the Employment Problems Mediation Committee
The labor inspector in Korea should periodically inspect companies in
regard to 116 items in the labor-related laws including the 5 items in the
Equal Employment Opportunity Act. But to inspect closely wage
discrimination by gender in companies is difficult due to lack of time and
manpower. Also, the inspectors may not have professional knowledge to
distinguish the presence of gender discrimination in the wage and personnel
management systems in companies, particularly where job duty based wage
systems or ability based wages systems are adopted.
In relation to this, though the Employment Problem Mediation Committee
can be considered a specialized organization, its ability to resolve
discrimination in wages by gender in companies is limited in nature. While
great numbers of such organizations in other countries have the authority
to investigate, the Employment Problem Mediation Committee has practically
no investigational power. Therefore, to enhance the effectiveness of the
committee, it should have this power even if there is no request for
investigation. If there is clear gender discrimination in a company, the
committee should have authority to resolve the problem in order to
eliminate the discrimination. Like the Equal Employment Opportunity
Committee in the United States of America, when the mediation plan is not
accepted by a company in which there is clear discrimination, the committee
should have the power to bring the case directly to the court. And like the
committees in U.K. and Canada, the Korean committee should have the power
to order the prohibition of discrimination. Therefore, this kind of
authority to investigate should be given to the Employment Problem
Mediation Committee. Considering th difficulties individual female workers
have in filing a lawsuit, it is very important to give the power to
investigate to the committee, particularly in the current situation of
present labor management relations in Korea.
C. Disclosure of Information and Enlargement of the Dispute Request
Qualifications
The policy of putting the burden of proof of no discrimination on an
employer is adopted in many countries, including Korea. However, the
problem of recognizing discrimination prior to a request for investigation
is still not resolved. Therefore, as in other countries, the duty of
providing information should be the responsibility of an employer. In
Korea, to enhance the effectiveness of the equal pay principle and to
ascertain wage management information should be provided periodically to
the labor union or labor/management committee. Also, when a dispute
concerning wage discrimination occurs, individual workers, labor unions, or
professional associations should be qualified to request the administrative
and judicial services. In particular, the enlargement of qualifications for
requests to investigate is important for resolving equal value work
disputes.
4. Elimination of Indirect Discrimination and Strengthening of the Policy
Against Low Wages
Wage mediation based on the equal value work concept can reduce wage
disparities by gender in a company. If the majority of wage disparities are
caused by the fact that workers in male dominated companies are paid more
than those in female dominated companies, then the effect of mediation may
not be great. Therefore, with the implementation of the equal pay
principle, it is important to eliminate wage disparities by gender:1)
through the rational implementation of minimum level wages; 2) through the
principle of more rewards for class workers than those higher class workers
to eliminate wage disparities which are caused by different educational
attainments and starting ranks; 3)through the elimination of the gender
segregation in the job market; and 4) through the recruitment and placement
in companies by placing more females in male dominated jobs.
5. Minimizing Side Effects Caused by the Implementation of the Equal Pay
Principle
In Korea, if a company adopts the equal pay for equal work principle, the
company may experience relatively more labor costs for female workers than
for male workers because it should also pay for the maternal expenses of
female workers. As a result, rigorous implementation of the principle may
cause undesirable side effects such as a reduction in the employment of
female workers or the strengthening of other discrimination in employment
by gender in Korea. Therefore, the government should seek to minimize the
side effects of the equal pay for equal work principle by subsidizing of
the maternal costs.
6. Perceptions and Attitudes toward Elimination of Discrimination
To eliminate gender discrimination against employment and wages requires
changes in society's customs and perceptions as well as the existing laws
and regulations. Therefore, gender discrimination should be eliminated by
teaching in the home and school the quality of human beings. The employers'
personnel policy, which traditionally has discriminated against female
workers, should also be changed. Furthermore, efforts of female workers
themselves to eliminate the gender discrimination are required. Related to
this, the labor union should also make major efforts to position female
workers as representatives in male dominated labor union activities.
REFERENCES
(Works in Korean)
Kim, Elim(1991), Explanation on Equal employment Opportunity Act, Ministry
of Labor.
Korean Labor-Relations Development Institute(1992), Development of Standard
Job Evaluation Model for Implementation of Equal Pay for Equal Work.
Korea Women's Association for Democracy and Sisterhood(1991), Women with
Clerical Jobs and Wages.
Korean Women's Development Institute(1989), Paper presented at the
Symposium for the Settlement of Equal Employment Opportunity Act.
Lee, Eun-Young(1989), "Equal Pay and Working Conditions for Men and Women,"
Women's Studies, Winter, Korean Women's Development Institute.
Ministry of Labor(1992), Guidelines for Implementation of Equal Employment
Opportunity Act.
Park, Choon-seong(1991), Case Studies on Improvement of Wage structures in
Korean Companies, Korea Productivity Center.
(Works in English)
Eyraud,F. et al.(1992), Equal Pay Protection in Industrialized Market
Economics:In Search of Greater Effectiveness, International Labor
Organization.
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